"Hair-Breadth 'Scapes and Ventures Wonderful." HIS LAST MURDER. His Arrest and Conviction. THE EXECUTION. SCENES AT THE SCAFFOLD. Scott Holderman took his last view of earth on as fair and lovely a day as ever greeted the eyes of the condemned. If ever a regret entered his mind at allowing himself to become the victim of blind, unbridled passion, it must have been when standing in his strength and young manhood, taking the last view, with all nature as lovely, and earth as peaceful and bright as though sin, and sorrow, and crime were never known. Father Favre, the Catholic priest, who had been laboring unremittingly, by daily visits and exhortations, to prepare him for that great eternity into which he was so soon to be launched, spent the greater portion of the forenoon with him in his cell administering the last rites of the church. Several of his acquaintances also spent a portion of the time with him. His mother had spent a portion of the previous day with him, and was awaiting the last act of the drama, but having bidden the last good-bye the previous evening did not go in to see him again. At half-past eleven, all being in readiness, the irons were removed and he was brought from the cell, and accompanied by the Catholic priest, with Sheriff's Goss and Ogden closely attending, walked to the place of execution and mounted the steps to the platform of the scaffold. He mounted slowly but firmly, without the least show of weakness or fear, with his eyes intently fixed on the crucifix which he was bearing in front of him. On reaching the top both knelt, and Father Favre read a lengthy prayer, Holderman not looking up, or removing his eyes from the cross, until it was through. On arising to his feet he looked calmly over the spectators, and turning to Sheriff Goss shook hands and bade him good-bye, and requested him to give his respects to all friends and acquaintances, also shaking hands with Sheriff Ogden, and then stepped promptly on the platform, standing firm and erect for the adjustment of the rope. His demeanor was perfectly calm, without the least sign of fear, though free from the air of bravado, that so often distinguishes hardened criminals. The black cap was drawn over his face, the rope adjusted, his hands and feet bound, and after a moment's pause Sheriff Goss touched the fatal spring, and with a heavy plunge all was over. His death was evidently instantaneous, as his neck was broken by the fall, though the heart continued to beat for some fifteen or twenty minutes. The only perceivable motion of the body was a contraction of the muscles some three or four minutes after the fall. After hanging thirty minutes, life was pronounced extinct by the attending surgeons, and the body was cut down and placed in the coffin. The execution was witnessed by about thirty-five persons. A very large crowd of persons were assembled outside the walls anxious to get a view of the sad proceedings within. The remains were immediately taken possession of by his mother, and interred in the cemetery of this city, the feeling being so strong against him in Linn county that she could not take him home for burial. |
||||||||||||
