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ELECTRIC CHAIR SNUFFS OUT LIVES OF MEN WHO MURDERED WILLIAM BRAZELL, COLUMBIAN KIRBY RESISTS STRAPPING INTO CHAIR AND IS DEPRIVED OF PRIVILEGE OF MAKING LAST STATEMENT. GAPPINS PRAYS FOR FORGIVENESS. FOX WARNS YOUNG MEN Columbia. — Obstinate, repentant, humble—these words describe the manner in which the “murder trio” went to their deaths as the sun peep ed over the penitentiary walls last Friday morning* It was cool outside, bat sweat stood on the faces of many w uo were at the death house to see ti e execution of the three men whose crime shocked a state and who sent U an untimely grave a young Colum- b an, whose car they took and whom they killed to cover their theft. Kirby was obstinate. Because he was not allowed to make his final statement to the audience as he stood a. the entrance of the death auditor- ii m, he refused to submit peacefully to the strapping into the big chair, and officers were forced to handle h.m with force and to deprive him of the privilege of making his last statement. Gappins prayed as he set in the c. air. “Stand by me, dear Lord, in n / last moments on this earth,” he b. gan, and then fervently he poured o. t his soul for forgiveness, and the hand of the electrician was stayed, r.o the young man prayed. But the prayer was finally ended when the I'.'OO volt current was sent hurtling through his body. Both Gappins and Fox warned young men against bad companions a:.d disregard for law. Fox was hum ble. “Good morning, gentlemen,” he said as he entered the death chamber “i have very little to say,” he mut tered. “I hold nothing against any one. I hope to meet the other boys in heaven.” Three ministers held services with the men before they left their cells. At 5:30 this morning the captain of the guard read the death warrant to the men. At 6:12 the first man was led to the chair room, and within 50 minutes the triple execution was ended. The trio appeared to have slept well during the night. A light breakfast was given the men early in the morn ing. There were no relatives of the men present. None cared to witness the executions, but later they called at the prison to make arrangements for disposition of the bodies. Local un- dctakers prepared the bodies for burial. Captain Roberts entered the death house, with reportes, at 5:25, bis mis sion being to read the death warrant to the trio. “Boys, I have a very serious letter to read to you,” the Captain began, and then he proceeded to read the formal warrant of death, which declared that they should be put to death in the electric chair be tween sunup and sundown on June 16, “and may God have mercy on youi souls.” While the warrant was being read to Fox and Gappins, whose cells ad join, Rev. J. C. Abney, State Hospi tal chaplain, and Rev. Murphy, to gether with the prison chaplain, Rev. J. W. Anderson, were holding a little farewell service of prayer with Kirby on the opposite side of the death house. The reporters and Captain Roberts stood respectfully aside until the little service was over, and prayer service was then held for Fox and Gappins, while the penitentiary guard captain read the warrant to Kirby. After the warrant was read to Kirby, the captain told the doomed man that he had a very short time to live. “I have a request to make,” said Kirby. “What is it?” asked the Captain. “That yo« allow me to go out of here of my own accord, without being led by a guard. Papa has gone be fore and mama has gone before me, and the others will come on soon.” Captain Roberts then told Kirby how to cut his pants leg so that the electrode could be properly adjusted when he reached the chair. And the doomed man was left to himself for his last minutes on earth. At 6:07 the first witnesses were ushered ito the death chamber, and at 6:10 the chair was tested. One minute later Kirby entered the death chamber, walking behind Captain Roberts. In two minutes he was strapped to the chair. Before being strapped in Kirby wanted to make a statement, standing before thq wit nesses, but he was refused, this be ing always allowed after the criminal enters the chair. When Kirby’s right arm was strap ped to the chair, his left arm being amputated several years ago, the man began to nervously tap the arm of the big oaken chair with his fingers and continued this until the two body straps were adjusted. He forced him self forward in the chair, making it hard for the officers to properly ad just the straps. He then told the of ficers that the right arm was too tight, and that they should loosen it, making some remarks about a peculiar feeling that he always had in that arm. A few moments later he slipped his arm from the strap. The officers again adjusted the strap, and Kirby made a second attempt to get his arm from the strap. An as sistant then forcibly held the hand against the oaken arm of the big chair. Kirby repeatedly resisted peaceful efforts to have himself properly ad- JHR WgEKLY NEWS REVIEW Oregonians Catching Smelt In the Sandy River, In Their # Home State View of some of the thousands of Oregonians who rushed to the Sandy River in that state re cently when millions of any smelt swarmed up he river to spawn. Peo ple who were not prepar ’d with regular dipnets ised birdcages, lace cur- ains, mosquito bar and >ther substitutes. PAGING DOGGIE Everybody’s Magazine. The hotel manager umped on a bell-boy for vhistling in the lobby. “Don’t you know that t is against the rules for n employe to whistle vhile on duty?” he de- nanded sternly. “Ain’t whistling, sir,” protested the boy. “I’m paging Mrs. Rich’s dog.” justed in the chair, and seeing his efforts to resist authority, the offi cers took the situation forcibly in hand and preemptorily strapped him down, depriving him then of the privilege of making his final state ment. With a rush he was strapped tight in the chair and the current was turned on. The first voltage entered his body at 6:16. The switch was held for one minute. The body was examined, and the doctors requested another shock. The 1900 volts were again sent through his body, and five minutes after the first shock the leader of the murder gang was de clared dead. It took ten amperes to kill Kirby. Kirby’s body was brought out and stretched on the table in the ante room, where the bodies are always strapped, that the limbs may become straight, after the effects of the elec- .ric shock. The witnesses were then escorted to the fresh air and a new ludience was ushered in. In the lit tle auditorium were a half hundred faces, waiting to gaze for the last time on the living form of young Jesse Gappins. With tears in his eyes the youngest man of the trio entered the death chamber and was • strapped to the chair at 6:32. Superintendent Sart- ders then asked him if he had a statement to make. “Gentlemen, all young men and old ones too,” began the young criminal, ■‘I advise to keep good company. I am here today to die, for keeping bad company. If the truth were known, and God knows it, I would not be here to die today. If it had been left to me, young Brazell would have been living today. Let this be a warning to everybody. You may not believe what I tell you, but before God it’s so; Jesus knows my heart. I know lots of faces among you,” Gap pins said, glancing around the room. “Sargeant,” the young man in the chair said to “Kitty” Sargeant, the staff photographer of The Record, “tell all my friends I said good-bye. I have hot had justice. Jesus died, after a perfect life. Good-bye every body. Good-bye Sargeant.” v These were the last words of the young man, except a short and earnest pray er, as he sat in the deadly chair, and in the eyes of even the hardest in the audience there were big tears. “Stand by me, dear Lord, in my last moments on this earth,” the young criminal prayed; and then in a quiet tone, for a whole minute, .vithout interference from the execu tioner, who waited as he prayed a hand on the switch, the young mur derer poured out his soul to God for forgiveness. The officers waited, but the best of earth’s privileges must end, and the hand of the big prison sargeant threw the switch, and a powerful 13-ampere, 1900-volt cur rent leaped through the huge frame of the young lad. It was two and three quarter min utes and Gappins was pronounced dead. Fox, the man who stabbed Brazell, of over 200 pounds averdupois, dra matically entered the death auditor ium at 6:47. “Good morning, gentlemen,” he said saluting the witnesses who sat in front of him. At 6:48 he was asked if he had a last statement. “I have very little to say,” Fox be gan; “except that I want to warn all poor fellows out in the world to live right; I’m sorry I got in bad company; but I’m not good company. I bear no malice for any one; I have nothing to say against the other boys, and I hope to meet them all in heaven.” At 6:50 the switch was thrown and l he physicians had to call for a sec ond shock, to make such that the big man was dead. In four minutes and seven seconds the “dead” signal was given. Three bodies were strapped to three separate tables in the ante-chamber of the death cell. Three lives had passed out, in expiation of the most deadly crime the state has known in years. To dishonored graves were carried three murderers and to the people of the state a lesson is taught; to the young manhood of the state is sounded a warning, by the clanging bell on the penitentiary wall, a warning against violation of law. The just and iron hand of the law has closed, as it will close again, on him who throws the laws of man and of God to the winds. South Caro lina’s worst drama of crime is ended and to the great yonder have passed its actors. When C. J. Kirby, C. O. Fox and Jesse Gappins, the famous “murder trio,” went to the electric chair, they paid the penalty for the most dast ardly crime committed in the state in many a year, the slaying of an in nocent taxi-driver, who was murder ed in cold blood on a lonely highway, his body left in the dew, his mur derers taking his automobile with a view to its sale. For the first time in the history of the electric chair in this state, three white men went the electric chair route the same day, and for the first time since 1913 a white man paid the death penalty. Hundreds of people wanted to see the electrocution, and made applica tion to the penitentiary officials to be admitted. It was thought that the execution would take place shortly before noon, as is usual in such cases. Hundreds of people were gathered at the prison gate at 11 o’clock today, expecting to get some sight of the doomed men. But the prison officials had thwarted the gaze of the mobidly curious. The electro cution was staged at 6 o’clock, and nobody but a few officials, newspaper man and members of the families of the doomed men knew anything about it. There was great surprise when it was announced early in the day that the three men had been sent to the other world early. The sun had not been up long, when he saw three corpses brought from the death house, Kirby, Fox and Gappins, and South Carolina’s sensational murder story was ended. Young Brazell was murdered dur- ng the night of August 7, last year. The three men engaged his car to ake them to Augusta, whence they were to go to Florida, to sell the car, after they had black-jacked the driver ind left him on the oadside. The young driver was black-jacked as the party traveled through Lexington county, but the blackjack broke. Then to complete their job they had to put the chauffeur out of the way. Kirby devised the scheme of killing him. He ordered Gappins to inflict the death wound, but the young man re fused. Then Fox was ordered and he obeyed, the knife being jabbed into the young Columbian’s body and twisted around several times for each operation. The body was thrown in the underbrush near the road and the three men proceeded on to Au gusta. After leaving Augusta a short dis- trance, the men had tire trouble, and stopping to get help, Kirby told of their criminal act, and they were ar rested. The next day, August 9, Kirby was brought back to Lexing ton and he assisted officers in find ing the body of young Brazell. Later he was brought to the penitentiary, escaping efforts of a band of men to get him. Fox and Gappins were held in Au gusta. A mob stormed the jail in an effort to get them. Later they were taken to Savannah, and thence in the dead of night they were smuggled to Charleston, and several days later still they were brought to Columbia, after a mob had searched trains and automobiles and guarded roadsides for days, in an effort to get hold of the two men. All three of the men confessed to the killing. On the witness stand in Lexington, when they were tried last September, they told, unflinchingly the horrible details of the crime, anu then on September 14, they were con victed and sentenced to the electric chair, October 21 being set as the date for their execution. All three appealed, however, and their appeals stayed their executions. The appeals, without merit, were never perfected, and on motion on May 23, they were again sentenced to die, this time on June 16. And June 16 has come, and into the eternal yonder the three men, who brut-’lly killed another young man, havt p: ased, their lives being wiped out !>y the revenging arm of the law, the future of their souls left to a forgiving God. Vain attempts have been made in recent weeks to have the governor save the lives of the prisoners. Pe titions for their commutation hava been presented in behalf of Gappina and Fox, these signed by some of thv jurors who convicted them. But tc all these the governor turned a deat ear, and the justice of the law was maintained, and a crime that shocked q commonwealth was respited. NOTICE The following is a list of districts, giving assessments of real estate by local boards and the raise by county boards: Local County Per Bd. Bd. Cent Florence, outside $13.00 $17.99 30 Back Swamp, No. 3.. 6.84 7.50 10 Jeffries, No. 4 5.75 6.60 15 Salem, No. 7 6.00 6.50 30 Lynch, No. 8 4.00 4.25 7 Cartersville, No. 10.. 5.90 7.30 24 Center, No. 11 7.00 9.00 21. Tans Bay, No. 14 6.94 7.40 / Hannah, No. 18 6.27 6.80 28 Hyman, No. 19 6.60 7.00 6 Olanta, No. 21 6.25 7.00 12 Morris, No. 23 5.12 7.00 37 Brownville, No. 24.. 5.34 6.00 12 Blossom, No. 25 4.59 5.00 10 Manheim, No. 30 3.65 4.00 10 Central, No. 33 5.00 5.65 13 Tabernacle, No. 36.. 4.15 5.00 21 Elim, No. 87. 5.18 7.00 35 Cartersville, No. 38.. 7.00 8.70 26 Cowards, No. 39 6.10 6.35 5 Big Swamp, No. 40.. 4.77 5.45 15 High Hill, No 45 5.50 6.80 23 Johnson, No. 57 4.50 5.10 22 If any one wishes to protest against the raise yiotify the county auditor at once, that a date may be arranged for a hearing. J. D. DANIEL, Ch. County Bd. Equalization. O’Dowd Theatre Today & Tomorrow 7— June 22-23 We Can Truthfully Say in Presenting William Fox’s Masterpiece of “Mark Twain’s” Greatest Comedy A CONNECTICUT YANKEE In King Arthurs Court That it is the richest, most elaborate and highest class comedy that has ever been shown on the screen. If you want to enjoy two hours of wholesome and hearty laughs see A Connecticut Yankee Whole World Laugh This is the first time it has ever been presented for less than 50c. Our Admission Children 15 and 25c. Adults 35c.