The Pendulum Swings to the Gallows
Angus McPhail, convicted of murdering a Darrington saloonkeeper, is sentenced to death at the state penitentiary.
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.
Angus McPhail, convicted of killing Fred Alderson, a Darrington saloonkeeper last May, was sentenced to be hanged at the state penitentiary in Walla Walla by Judge Denney at Everett, Saturday afternoon. When asked if he had anything to say before sentencing, he replied with a faint, 'I have nothing to say.' The sentence mandated that he be delivered to the warden at Walla Walla to be hanged by the neck until dead. McPhail appeared physically and mentally weakened by his confinement and lacked any supporters in the crowded courtroom as the fateful sentence was pronounced.
“The sentence of this court is that you be delivered into the hands of the warden at Walla Walla and there be hanged by the neck until you are dead.”
While Washington abolished the death penalty in 2023, this 1903 account highlights the historical role of the Walla Walla Penitentiary as the centralized site for state-sanctioned executions, a practice that defined the institution's public identity for over a century.
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