April 29, 2004
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103 YEARS AGO TODAY
Apr 29 1901
Train robber and one of the last of the Old West outlaws, Thomas "Black Jack" Ketchum is unsuccessfully hanged in Clayton, New Mexico. The executioner's poor choice of rope and Ketchum's recent increase in weight combine to produce a gruesome decapitation in the gallows.
His hanging turned out to be a big town event. People from the towns around Clayton came, the lawmen sold tickets to see Black Jack get hung and they sold little dolls of him hanging on a stick.
Finally the sheriff took two blows with a hatchet before the rope was cut. When Black Jack fell to the ground, he had been beheaded. It was the first time anyone was ever hung in Clayton, so many mistakes were probably made
http://pvs.k12.nm.us/MSpages/Time_line/j_ritter/uncletommy2.gif
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