The Execution of Robert Day
After a failed suicide attempt and legal appeals reaching the State Supreme Court, the murderer of Thomas Clinton Beebe faces the scaffold in Kalama.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Robert T. Day was hanged this morning at 11:13 o'clock in Kalama. The trap was sprung by Sheriff Holmes, and the doomed man died without a struggle, his neck being broken. Day ascended the scaffold without assistance and made a speech in a loud, distinct voice, claiming his innocence of the murder as charged, while requesting those present to look after his wife and children. Day was convicted of the murder of Thomas Clinton Beebe at a logging camp near Woodlawn, Cowlitz County, in October 1891. The dispute began over cows destroying Beebe’s corn. During his imprisonment, Day attempted suicide by slashing his arm with a table knife, but was saved for the execution. Governor Elisha Ferry refused to grant executive clemency.
“Day walked with a steady step, ascending the scaffold without the assistance of any one. He made a speech to those present in a loud and distinct voice.”
This account of a 19th-century public execution highlights the era's brutal intersection of frontier justice and rigid legalism. The story of a conflict over cattle escalating to a capital crime reflects a time when disputes in rural logging camps were often settled with a Winchester rifle rather than in court.
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