TVPast Forums

gatch72 · #1 08-31-2005, 12:40 PM

A little known fact, I thought I would tell you guys about a little history of my hometown..
Check it out!!!

http://www.geocities.com/lastpublich...cExecution.htm

MagnificentMarcus · #2 08-31-2005, 01:52 PM

My great-grandmother who died in 1973 at the age of 98 told me that they used to have hangings in Oklahoma/Kansas etc when she was a little girl. She said that the atmosphere of the crowd was similar to going to a carnival. People would have picnic baskets, games and barkers selling all types of things.

Her father or my great, great grandfather was a U.S. Marshall and had to move his family several times throughout the midwest. He was killed in his sleep at home by the surviving members of a vicious outlaw gang that he and a posse'had been chasing. It seems that him and several other marshalls had got in a gunfight with this gang and killed quite a few of them. They chased the remainder to some underground caves where they were hiding out. According to my great grandmother they dynamited the caves. Several of them escaped and hide out for several days and then tracked my great-great grandfather back to his home. They shot my great-great grandfather through a window while he was sleeping.

Supposably, my great-great grandfathers associates tracked these outlaws down after 6 months, but interestingly the outlaws all died before they could be brought to trial.

It's hard to imagine life back then. Her family came to Idaho in a wagon train after her father's death in 1889. She was fourteen years old at the time and the Indians they meet on the way keep trying to get her brothers to trade her for horses. I always thought she was making up stories till my mother showed me pictures and newspaper clippings.

stoogedog · #3 09-06-2005, 02:31 PM

hi, i think it is time to go back to public hangings. maybe we need to go back to cuttin hands off thieves etc. crime rates might go down. thanks

MagnificentMarcus · #4 09-06-2005, 04:36 PM

Hmm, I'll pass. To many innocent people get caught up in the emotion of the moment and let the facts go out the door. Believe it or not I am against the death penalty-basically because of the cost and the fact that too many people have been executed and later found to be innocent.

lordsmurf · #5 09-06-2005, 09:28 PM

I never understood the cost thing. A piece of rope from Home Depot is only about $4-5 a yard .... $15 and we got ourselves a noose.

wigam · #6 09-06-2005, 09:49 PM

Its all staff costs, hangmen are expensive nowadays. Got themselves a union

lordsmurf · #7 09-06-2005, 09:52 PM

Ah yes. $100,000 toilet seats, $50,000 hammers, $15,000 ropes. I forget about that special government hardware store. Nevermind. What was I thinking?

And then you have to pay the executioner $20k just to wake up in the morning. Pulling the big switch has to have insurance too, that guy may get tennis elbow and have to file workman's comp!