In early America, we were terrible at hanging people. Ropes would break, the drop wasn’t high enough, and people would slowly strangle to death. It was rare when a hanging went right.
This newspaper report is about a botched hanging in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1912.
Man Dies on Scaffold Screaming Innocence
Lancaster, Pa., May 23. — Screaming his innocence of the murder of Tony Serafino, Antonio Romezzo was hanged here today.
The rope broke on the first drop. Romezzo’s body crashed down into the prison yard. Several spectators fainted.
The sheriff and his deputies hurried down, and picked up the writhing body of the doomed man.
Another knot was tied in the rope. It was readjusted. The trap was sprung once more. This time the rope held, and Romezzo slowly strangled to death.
Not until the rope was actually around his neck did Romezzo believe he was to die.
Even this morning, he was laughing and joking with his guards, telling them his trial and sentence was only a farce, and a joke, designed to scare him into confessing a crime of which he knew nothing.
When the white faced executioner at last placed the rope around Romezzo’s neck, the condemned man at last realized that this was no joke.
As the black cap was placed over his head, he began to scream his innocence of the murder, and his vain protestations continued until the end.
Source: The Day Book (Chicago, Illinois newspaper). May 23, 1912
