The Sheriff's Deadline: 'I Will Be Compelled to Hang Him'

"If the attorneys for C. W. Nordstrom don't take some action pretty soon I will be compelled to hang him on August 31," said Sheriff J. H. Woolery yesterday.

Continuing, the sheriff said that his attention was called to the matter by Jailer W. T. Monroe, and they went to the court records for the purpose of learning if an appeal had been taken by Nordstrom's attorneys and found that nothing in that direction had been done. The appeal, however, can be prepared any time before August 31. Attorneys have interested themselves for the past few days in examining the papers. Nordstrom is without money, and unless he raises some an appeal will not be taken.

The gallows will be erected on the east side of the jail. The platform containing the trap will be level with the door of the sheriff's office, so that the sheriff, his deputies and the prisoner can step from the office to the scaffold. The gallows will be movable, so that it can be taken down and stored away, as it looks now as though the sheriff would have more death sentences to carry out in addition to that of Nordstrom.

The crime for which Nordstrom was convicted was the killing of William Mason on his father's ranch near Cedar Mountain on the evening of November 21, 1891. He stole up to the house and shot Mason through the window while at supper. The evidence against Nordstrom is all circumstantial. His hat was found in a cabin about a mile from where Mason lived. In his possession was found a cap with a peculiar patch which was taken from the cabin when he left his hat there. The bullet found in Mason's body was similar to the ones used in Nordstrom's Winchester.

At present there is lots of fruit ripening for the gallows in the county jail. There are nine convicted or accused murderers confined there. Their names are: Henry Warner, W. A. Wilcox, William Holmes, C. W. Nordstrom, Servius Patten, Jim Murphy and the three Japanese men accused of murdering a countryman a few days since near Auburn.