The Ithaca Journal
Tuesday June 20, 1871
The
Execution of Michael Ferguson for Murder.
Mike Ferguson, who has been incarcerated in our
jail for a year and three months past was hung on Friday last at ten
minutes to one o’clock. Thursday afternoon his sister was with him in
the cell and his religious counselor, Dr. Strong, spent the greater part
of the night with him. He talked freely and sometimes jokingly about his
approaching end. His light manner was evidently put on to keep up his
spirits; for at times he would break into a fit of despondency and then
he would become serious and talk his case over and of the hope he had
for the future world. He read in the Bible and made an attempt to sing
some familiar hymns. During his imprisonment he had grown quite fond of
reading, read much in the newspapers and mastered some small religious
books, among which was Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. He compared his own
imprisonment to that of Buyan, and said “On Friday I will leave Doubting
Castle and go on my pilgrimage to the Celestial City.”
Friday morning his two sisters were
with him till 11 o’clock when they took final leave. This was his most
trying moment; no other friend was as dear to him as the sister who
visited him almost daily in his solitary life. He had written several
times to his mother but she neither came to see him nor answered his
letters. About 12 o’clock some companies of the 50th militia
were stationed about the jail. Those who had received passes from
Sheriff Root-in all about thirty-five, mostly representative of the
press, physicians, and sheriffs-were admitted to the enclosed yard
between the jail and court house, where the instrument of death was
erected. It consisted of a horizontal beam six inches square erected
some twelve feet high. Two pulleys were mortised into it about six feet
apart over which the rope passed, one end being attached to a cast iron
weight of 300 pounds. An upright box the height of the beam enclosed the
height which rested on a small platform five or six feet from the
ground. The platform was dropped by pressing a small lever against a
spring. The gibbet was devised by Sheriff Root and did its horrid duty
admirably. I had been previously tested with a bag of sand.
At 12:30 religious services were held at
the cell, Rev. O.H. Warren officiating. He read the 51st
Psalm which he said Ferguson had taken much comfort from of late, also
the latter part of the 8th chapter of Romans and a few
appropriate verses from St. Luke. He then made some remarks on the
solemnity of the occasion and the spiritual condition of the prisoner,
saying that h gladly accepted the penalty of the law as just. During the
prayer Ferguson kneeled with the ministers and joined in the Lord’s
Prayer at the close. He then took leave of his brothers-in-law, the
Sheriff and a few other friends. The rope, the same which hung Rulloff
and two others before him, was placed around his neck and he was led out
into the yard and took a chair under the jibbet while Ex-Sheriff Van
Kirk read the death warrant. Sheriff Root then asked if he had anything
to say white sentence should not now be executed. Dr. Strong replied in
behalf of the prisoner that he had nothing to say and was ready and
willing to give up his life that the majesty of the law might be
vindicated. He returns thanks to Mr. Root and all who have befriended
him in prison. He entertains no ill will toward any one and dies with
the language of peace upon his lips. The execution that brings death
here will bring him life in the next world. Dr. Strong then offered a
short, fervent prayer, during which the poor victim calmly closed his
eyes. His face as very pale and his body trembled slightly. He was made
to stand up after the prayer and his arms were tied behind his back
above the elbows, his legs strapped above and below the knees, and the
rope adjusted with the knot just under the left ear. The Sheriff again
said, “Ferguson, have you anything to say?” He replied quite
hesitatingly and indistinctly, “I don’t know as I have.” Dr. Strong and
Rev. Warren then shook hands with him and said they hoped to meet him in
Heaven. He looked around nervously and said in a distinct voice, “I bid
you all farewell-take warning by me.” They were his last words. The
white cap was drawn over his head, Sheriff Root touched the spring and
the weight fell to the ground with a thud, jerking him up about six
feet. He writhed spasmodically for five minutes when the body hung
motionless, and Drs. Burr, Lewis, Brown and Johnson examined it. At the
end of 5 minutes the pulsations at the wrist were 80 per minute; at 7
minutes, 72 per minute; at 8 ˝ minutes 60; 9 minutes 48; 10 ˝ minutes
36; at 11 minutes no pulsation at the wrist, and at 13 minutes from the
time the drop fell the heart ceased to beat and he was pronounced dead,
and at 20 minutes the body was lowered into the coffin a cold corse
(corpse). The next was not broken and the face little distorted. The
death-warrant was signed and the coffin closed and given over to Mr.
Warren, who had received a written request from Ferguson to see that his
body was properly cared for.
A large crowd had gathered in front of
the jail with the hope of seeing or hearing something. Sheriff Root
announced to them that the body would not be exposed to public view and
they quietly dispersed. The body was placed in the public vault in the
cemetery at 4 o’clock. It will probably be claimed by some of his
friends.
A last effort was made by persons in
this village and elsewhere to secure from the Governor a respite or a
commutation of his sentence to imprisonment for life. The following
reply by his private secretary has been made public as his reason for
not interfering with the due execution of the law.
STATE
OF NEW YORK, EXECUTIVE CHAMBER
ALBANY,
June 13, 1871
Hon. George W. Schuler, Ithaca, NY
Dear Sir:-The Governor has just
returned from New York, and directs me to say, in answer to your letter
of the 7th inst., that he has very fully and carefully
considered what you write concerning the case of Ferguson, and that he
is not able to see any sufficient reason for changing the decision
already made.
In most cases where a capital offense
has been committed and a conviction is had, public sentiment, which at
first demanded the most speedy and rigorous execution of the law.
Sometimes not desiring to wait even for the law’s delays, undergoes a
change as the day of execution draws near, and strongly favors a
commutation of sentence, so that the prisoner’s life may be spared. This
change in neither unnatural or to be deplored, and yet, if the Governor
were to heed it in all cases, there would be very few, out of all the
number convicted, who would suffer the penalty which the law prescribes.
If the legal responsibility of
Ferguson, there is no question, nor can it be doubtful that he had
sufficient intelligence to know that he was perpetrating a very great,
the greatest of all crimes. The measures of concealment which he adopted
show this.
There are very many among those who
commit crimes (more in the cities than in the country) who have had no
better training, if so good, than Ferguson had, and whom to as great an
extent as he, are deficient in moral sense and general intelligence.
Such men, above all others, need the terrors of the law to restrain them
from crime, and it is the certainty that the punishment which the law
imposes will be carried into effect, more than the degree of punishment
which deters them.
In the present condition of the public
mind, with an apparently increasing tendency to the commission capital
offenses and to hold human life lightly. It is necessary that it should
be clearly understood that where legal responsibility exists the
penalties of the law will be rigorously enforced.
The prisoner’s guilt is clear. The
crime was an atrocious one, and he is legally responsible. The Governor
cannot interfere with the sentence of the court.
I am directed further to say that if he
could deem it proper to do so, the Governor would much prefer, in this
as in all such cases to come to a different decision.
I am, sir, very respectfully, your
obedient servant.
Edgar K. Aroar
