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370 stories matching hang
- The Hanging Party That Wasn't: Puget Sound's First Murder Arrest
A retired sailor recalls the day a ship's crew nearly lynched a stevedore at Port Blakely—and the strange reunion that followed years later.
- ‘You Are Hanging an Innocent Man’: A Condemned Killer’s Last Words Before 4,000 Witnesses
Ezra Snoderly, one of the Cummins murderers, is hanged in Dayton’s courthouse square — insisting to the very end that he dies for another man’s crime, while the crowd judges him ‘game.’
- A Hanging in the Armory: The Unpopular Corporal and the Men Who Stuffed His Uniform
Company E turned a grudge into theatre — an effigy rigged with an electric-light wire, a pair of odd-coloured glasses and a chalked gravestone — and a military court may follow.
- Masked Vigilantes Hang a Convicted Murderer in Dayton Jail
James McPherson, convicted of murdering E. H. Cummins at New York Bar, was taken from the Dayton jail by masked men and hanged, despite a governor's reprieve and a new trial order.
- The Man Who Was Hanged Twice
A condemned murderer facing execution in Colfax reveals his harrowing, accidental survival of a previous lynching by an angry mob.
- The Effigy in the Pine Tree
Charles Gloystein crossed Spokane County's Populists and woke to find himself hanged in straw. Then he vanished.
- A Week of Tragedy in Pierce County
A string of suicides, murders, and accidents shocks Tacoma as a young student and an asylum patient end their own lives.
- A Convict Hangs Himself at McNeil's Island — and No One Comes for Him
Charles Carlson, forty, serving eight months for selling whisky to Indians at North Yakima, is found hanging in a water-closet at the federal penitentiary. The warden cuts him down minutes too late.
- Vigilante Mob Lynches Two Prisoners at Whitman County Jail
A masked party of fifty men broke into the courthouse to extract and hang a convicted assailant and a murder defendant, while a jury slept just feet away.
- The Night of the Three Nooses
A double lynching followed by a swift vigilante mob justice against a third prisoner defined one of the most violent episodes in early Seattle history.
- The Man Who Wouldn't Die: A Seattle Gallows Horror
In a gruesome spectacle that shook the young Territory of Washington, Francis Epps survived his own hanging by mere inches, crying for mercy as the crowd watched him dangle in agony before being cut down.
- The Dynamite Fiend of Oilman: A Lynch Mob’s Tragic Mistake
When a violent feud in King County’s coal fields ended in a massacre, the community turned to vigilante justice. But when they hanged the wrong man, the real killer walked free.
- The Day the Chinamen Came Back
After a violent expulsion and rumors of hanging in Tekoa, Chinese laborers return under federal guard to resume work, turning a local tragedy into a grim advertisement for the town.
- Hanged on a Doubt: Washington Territory's First White Execution
When John Thompson was hanged in Seattle in 1877, many believed he was guilty of manslaughter, not murder. The Dispatch made the case that the law had taken a life it should have spared.
- The Last Chapter at 1344 C Street
After her abusive husband hanged himself in the Tacoma city jail, a Swedish-born woman shot herself—and the policeman who had tried to save her stayed at her bedside until the end.
- The Toy-Pistol Jailbreak That Left a Killer at Large
A Seattle editorial seethes over technical delays and comfortable cells after confessed murderer Thomas Blanck walks out of the King County Jail with its keys and revolvers.
- White Mob Hangs Innocent Teen at Nooksack Crossing
A white mob dragged Jimmie Boole from his bed at Nooksack Crossing and hanged him from a tree to force a confession for a horse theft he was innocent of, cutting him down before he died.
- The Yale Football Legend Who Tamed a Frontier Town
When lawlessness gripped the construction camp of Skykomish, a former Yale athlete used his brute strength and leadership to face down a local gang leader.
- A Lynching in Dayton: When Neighbors Decided the Law Was Too Slow
After James McPherson, one of the Cummins murderers, won a new trial and a reprieve, a Dayton mob hanged him—prompting the Post-Intelligencer to ask why vigilante justice was reviving in Washington Territory.
- The Firebug's Last Exit: A Tacoma Lodging-House Owner Hangs Himself
After firemen foiled his attempt to burn his own lodging house for insurance, Carl Haesbseche walked out before breakfast, rigged a twine noose, and stepped off a platform.
- The Electric Gate: An Olympia Father Declares War on Front-Gate Courting
A gadget-minded Eastside householder wires his front gate to deliver a jolt to lally-gagging sweethearts — and proves it first on an unwitting dog and a cabbage-loving cow.
- The Nine-Inning Scandal at the Old Exchange
A local baseball game ends in a high-stakes confrontation that reads like a pulp novel, leaving one man bitter and another victorious.
- A Miner, a Revolver and a Pair of Suspenders
John Purse had lived in the coal town of Wilkeson for eighteen years. In one drunken night he shot his eldest son, was locked in the town jail, and hanged himself before anyone could stop him.
- A Tie Vote Leaves Newport's Telephone Franchise Hanging
The old council adjourns sine die after deadlocking on a telephone ordinance; the new mayor and marshal take office amid a 154-name petition.
- The Hanged Corporal: A Seattle Guard Company Investigates Its Own Effigy Prank
Officers admitted the facts but called it a practical joke—then promised to punish the men who strung up Corporal J. E. Boyer in effigy.
Also about this, in other words
- A Dramatic Arrest and a 'Whisky Fit' at the Police Station
A suspect arrested for jumping a boarding house bill and passing bogus checks collapses in his wife's arms while in police custody.
- Suspended by the Wrists: A Perilous Fall in Downtown Seattle
A local painter narrowly avoided tragedy after a ladder slipped and left him dangling from meat hooks.
- Tragedy in the Basement on Washington Street
A cook and cannery worker, struggling with isolation and mental illness, was found dead in a basement apartment.
- The Sailor Who Hung by His Own Neck
A seaman aboard the English ship Halewood survives a sixty-foot fall after a piece of rigging snags his throat in mid-air.
- A Plea to Spare the Hangman's Noose
Citizens and legal officials petition the Governor to commute a death sentence, highlighting the tragic complexities of a lethal clash in King County.
- A High-Wire Act Above Fourth Street
A building mover narrowly escapes death after being swept off a roof and left dangling from telegraph wires.
- The Day the Bridge Fell: A Tramp’s Fatal Ride and a Railroad’s Collapse
A westbound freight train on the Northern Pacific line was derailed when a stowaway fell under a car, triggering a chain reaction that plunged nine cars into Hangman's Creek. One man died; the rest were spared.
- The First Legal Hanging in Kittitas County
Richard 'Boosy' Anderson faces execution for the murder of Charles Fox following a dispute over a dice game in a Roslyn saloon.