West C. Gilbreath - Death on the Gallows: The Encyclopedia of Legal Hangings in Texas

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Death on the Gallows: The Encyclopedia of Legal Hangings in Texas
Author:
West C Gilbreath
Publisher:
Wild Horse Press
Genre:
Books / Detective and thriller
Year:
2017
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Death on the Gallows: The Encyclopedia of Legal Hangings in Texas: summary, description and annotation

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The most comprehensive work ever done on legal executions by hanging in Texas. Arranged by counties, this book documents 467 executions in Texas, many that have been forgotten through the years. Such as:

Decapitated: Jack Fields--Wharton County, and Charles Myers-- Tarrant County were both completely decapitated and Clemente Apolinar--Bexar County was almost decapitated.

Had to be hanged twice: Joseph Brewster--El Paso and Jack Williams--Wharton County, and Jack Post of Young County had to be hanged twice at their executions.

Famous Hanging: Joshua Bowen--Gonzales County was the brother-in-law of John Wesley Hardin and declared up to his death that the witness identified him wrong, and that it was John Wesley Hardin who committed the murder.

Mass Hanging: In 1917, thirteen African American soldiers from the 24th Infantry Division were hanged in Bexar County for murder and mutiny, when they took part in the Houston riot on August 23, 1917.

The racial disparity of those executed in Texas is also of note when you consider 280 of those executed out of the 467, or 60% were African American, during a time when African Americans made up only about 22% of the population in all of Texas.

Thoroughly researched by West Gilbreath, a career law enforcement officer, this book is a must for any Texas history buff, as well as school and public libraries.

West C. Gilbreath: author's other books

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Death on the Gallows

The Encyclopedia of Legal Hangings in Texas

By: West C. Gilbreath

Death on the Gallows The Encyclopedia of Legal Hangings in Texas - image 2

By West Gilbreath

Published By Wild Horse Press

An Imprint of Wild Horse Media Group

P.O. Box 331779

Fort Worth, Texas 76163

1-817-344-7036

www.WildHorseMedia.com

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

ebook ISBN 978-1-68179-187-6

Paperback ISBN 978-168179-051-0

Hardback ISBN 978-1-68179-052-7

Cover Design By

Flying Gorilla Studios

www.FlyingGorillaStudios.com

Table of Contents

Anderson

Atascosa

Austin

Bastrop

Bee

Bell

Bexar

Bowie

Brazoria

Brazos

Brewster

Burleson

Burnet

Caldwell

Calhoun

Callahan

Cameron

Camp

Cass

Castro

Chambers

Cherokee

Coleman

Collin

Colorado

Cooke

Coryell

Dallas

Delta

Denton

DeWitt

Donley

Duval

Ellis

El Paso

Erath

Falls

Fannin

Fayette

Fort Bend

Freestone

Galveston

Gonzales

Grayson

Gregg

Grimes

Guadalupe

Hardin

Harris

Harrison

Hays

Henderson

Hidalgo

Hill

Hood

Houston

Hunt

Jack

Jasper

Jefferson

Johnson

Karnes

Kaufman

Kinney

Lamar

La Salle

Lavaca

Lee

Liberty

Limestone

Live Oak

Matagorda

Maverick

McLennan

Medina

Menard

Midland

Milam

Montague

Montgomery

Morris

Nacogdoches

Navarro

Newton

Nueces

Orange

Palo Pinto

Parker

Polk

Presidio

Rains

Red River

Reeves

Refugio

Robertson

Rusk

Sabine

San Augustine

San Jacinto

San Patricio

Shelby

Smith

Tarrant

Taylor

Titus

Travis

Trinity

Tyler

Uvalde

Val Verde

Van Zandt

Victoria

Walker

Washington

Webb

Wharton

Wilbarger

Williamson

Wilson

Wise

Young

Hangings by Alphabetical Order

Hangings in Chronological Order

Sources

Author Bio

In dedication to the memory of my brother, James A. Gilbreath (Oct. 31, 1959 Jan. 11, 1975) whose death guided me into a lifetime career in law enforcement.

Preface

Texans, in general, have always been very proud of their state, western heritage, history, and the reputation of being the toughest state when it comes to punishing criminals. This reputation can easily be said to have started before Texas was a Republic when the first legal execution occurred in 1834 in Nacogdoches.

Many people today believe hangings were all conducted from tree limbs as featured in early western movies, or because various plaques in Texas towns identified a certain tree within the courthouse square as being the countys hanging tree. When in fact, the plaque should have read that the tree had been used for the purpose of lynchings, as the law required that executions would be from a constructed gallows. Texas law later directed the sheriffs to conduct the hanging in private from within the walls of the jail when available. If not, the law limited the number of those who were allowed to be present. Several historic jails when constructed had chambers, towers or high ceilings for a gallows in anticipation of having to execute a person in their county.

At the same time, many believe that the hanging of a criminal was first developed in the Wild West as a form of western justice, when in all reality this form of punishment was brought to America with the arrival of pilgrims from England. The first execution in the New World took place at Jamestown, Virginia, in the fall of 1608. That execution, however, was not at the end of a rope, but rather by firing squad when Captain George Kendall was executed after he was tried and found guilty of being a spy for Spain. The first legal hanging took place on September 30, 1630, at Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts, when John Billington was tried for the shooting death of John Newcomer whom he viewed as his enemy.

After researching and publishing, Death on the Gallows, The Story of the Legal Hangings in New Mexico, I again became curious as to how many legal hangings had occurred in Texas before the state changed the method to electrocution in 1923. Because of the change in the law, Texas law removed the responsibility from the county sheriff to the state in order to electrocute the condemned. Many county sheriffs welcomed the change of not having to execute a person, whereas other sheriffs viewed the task as their duty along with the $30 fee each received for serving the court order.

At the same time, I was curious to know how many counties in Texas performed executions. I wanted to know what were the names of the people legally executed, how many of those were women, and what was the largest number of executions held at one time in Texas. I also wanted to know if the circumstances of crimes committed in Texas were similar to those in New Mexico. Crimes such as train robbery, saloon shootouts, raids by border bandits, assaults on women, and the murder of travelers crossing through the desert during their journey to the next town. The answer was yes and more. Those executed in Texas committed murders during land feuds or over politics. They shot and killed lawmen while making arrests or escapes from jails, murdered during train robberies, and raped of women. Mexican bandits crossed over into the U.S. to commit raids of towns, while others murdered travelers or their companions for the purpose of taking their possessions. At the same time, I was surprised at the number of murders committed against the persons spouse, loved ones or because a woman rejected his courtship or marriage proposal.

I also wondered if Texas law was similar to the laws that I had written about in New Mexico. The research for this book showed a vast difference from both. Texas being a Republic in 1836, enacted the death penalty by hanging those guilty of committing murder, arson, rape, robbery, burglary, slave stealing, escape from confinement or counterfeiting money. In pre-Civil War, death penalty crimes were enacted toward slaves for assaulting or murdering their owner or sexually assaulting women.

However, the laws for death penalty cases did differ. In New Mexico, if a defendants case was moved to another county for trial on a change of venue and if he or she was found guilty, the defendant was returned back to the county where the crime was committed to await execution. In Texas, the prisoner was executed in the county where he was found guilty, regardless of the change of venue. For example, all three men executed jn Denton County were granted a change of venue from Cooke and Montague County.

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