The Gallows at Colfax
A thousand spectators crowded the streets and hillsides to witness the final penalty for a murder in Whitman County.
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.
Jack Leonard paid the penalty for the murder of Jacob Malquist with his life at Colfax on Friday, protesting his innocence to the last. The execution was witnessed by fully 1,000 people; the streets around the courthouse were filled with eager throngs, and the hillside to the east was black with people who could look down upon the scene and get a clear view of the execution.
“The hillside to the east was black with people, who could look down upon the scene and get a good view of the execution.”
Public executions in Washington Territory were once communal spectacles that drew crowds from miles around. Today, the death penalty is the subject of intense, quiet legislative and judicial debate, but the grim curiosity of the public remains a persistent theme in how we discuss justice.
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