I’ve written about the garrote as a form of capital punishment in the past and felt compelled to share this latest find in the newspaper archives with you.
A Sickening Spectacle
HAVANA, March 31, 1896. — Never in modern times has there been a more sickening spectacle than that which today attended the public execution of five Cubans.
The men had been condemned to death by the garrote as “murderers, violators and incendiaries.”
Troops were drawn up in a hollow square, and in the middle were placed the chair and post.
Ruiz, the public executioner, had deputized an assistant to conduct the affair.
The condemned men having received the offices of the church, were brought into the square to meet their fate.
One of them had confessed his guilt and affirmed the innocence of all the others, who also protested that they were guiltless.
The first man to die took his seat in the chair; the iron collar was fixed about his neck and the cap drawn over his face.
Then the executioner undertook to apply the screw, but was so excited that his hand slipped repeatedly, with the result that the victim died by slow strangulation, emitting the while most distressing cries.
The second execution was accomplished with even more distressing awkwardness and delay, the executioner being almost on the verge of collapse as he performed his horrible function.
The protests of the officers and priests forced Ruiz to undertake the third execution, but he did little better than his assistant had done.
The fourth victim of the bungling garroters was likewise tortured and then Ruiz literally fled from his post, leaving his assistants to put to death the fifth of the Cubans, who escaped none of the agonizing experiences that had attended the execution of his fellows.
The whole affair has left upon those who witnessed it and upon those to whom it has been described a feeling of the utmost horror.
Source: Wheeling register. (Wheeling, W. Va.), 01 April 1896.
