Jail Series No.3

HANGINGS
1866-1909
Hangings at the Old Stone Jail

Editor's Note: At our new exhibit of the Old Stone Jail there are eight pamphlets. For those unable to get to the exhibit we intend to publish each pamphlet. This is #3 of 8.

A total of eleven men were executed by hanging at both the “Old Red Jail” and the new “Stone Jail” between the years 1866 and 1909. All were convicted of murder. News accounts range from the spectacular; with crowds of several hundreds in attendance to unimpressive occasions in which only the obligatory officials and clergy were present. Double hangings occurred in 1866 and in 1906.

The first double hangings, those of Daniel Busser and John Howser, occurred on April 20, 1866 , at a make-shift site just east of the “little red jail” on South Center Street . Michael Moore’s execution was held on November 27, 1872 , and was the first at the “new” jail. The fourth man scheduled to be executed in Cambria County generated a bit of folklore at the jail and was even the subject of “ghost stories” as told by generations of prison guards. Labeled: “The Man They Could Not Hang”, Michael Smith, “Old Smitty” to the guards, simply vanished the night before his scheduled date with the gallows. He had been convicted of murder on April 25, 1883 . Though he was never re-captured, the very human Michael Smith did leave a long letter in his jail cell. The sheriff maintained a display case of the jail’s previous hanging ropes. When Michael Smith's unused noose was added to the

collection it only perpetuated the myth of “The Man They Could Not Hang”.

see: “Early Cambria Countians Viewed Hangings As A Source of Entertainment” - Mountaineer-Herald - Oct. 28, 1976 .

Then followed the executions of Michael “Pegleg” Murray on September 23, 1884 , Charles Carter on April 9,1890 , Harry Muriah on February 26, 1891 and Frank Davis (a.k.a. William Mangen) on August 11, 1904 .

from: Scaffold and Chair - A Compilation of Their Use In Pennsylvania 1682-1962, Dr. Negley K. Teeters, Temple University.

Though their crimes were not connected, both Jacob Hauser and Stephen Fellows were scheduled to be executed by hanging on February 15, 1906 , at the Cambria County Jail. Hauser was convicted of killing his wife and her mother with a large Philippine knife known as a bolo. Fellows also killed his wife and shot his son in the head. The boy miraculously recovered. Four to five hundred tickets were issued by the Sheriff’s Office to view the public execution. Construction workers adapted the single gallows to accommodate both men. The hanging took place in the customary northeast corner of the yard. Black caps were placed over their heads prior to the hanging.

see: “Hauser and Fellows Drop Into Eternity” Mountaineer-Herald, February 17, 1906 .

The last two hangings at the Cambria County Jail garnered little attention in the press. No tickets were issued by the Sheriff’s Office for the John Caraffa hanging on March 25, 1909 , nor for the Thomas Joseph Johns hanging on October 19 of the same year. Only prison officials, the jury, clergy and members of the press attended the executions. The Ebensburg newspaper’s headline read: “Hanging Today Quiet Affair.” Mountaineer-Herald - Oct. 21, 1909 .

Beginning in 1915, the state began to execute convicts by electric chair at Rockview State Prison. Cambria County sent 16 men to their deaths at Rockview between 1916 and 1956.

The most infamous of those sent to the electric chair at Rockview were Bassie and Pezzi who were executed in 1925 for their part in the Belsano Train Robbery.

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