In 1892, William Buckley was shot from ambush after reportedly exposing the activities of “white cappers” in the area. The crime led to a sensational trial, a conviction, and a death sentence for Will Purvis, a man who came within seconds of being hanged before a crowd of spectators.
The trap was sprung. The body dropped. Then, in a moment that stunned everyone present, the noose slipped.
Purvis fell from the scaffold unharmed.
To many in the crowd, this was no ordinary accident. In an age when public executions drew hundreds and superstition still held a powerful grip on the public imagination, the failed hanging looked like a sign.
Authorities were persuaded to return Purvis to jail rather than attempt the execution again. His sentence was later commuted to life in prison, and after seven years, he was pardoned.
For decades, the strange escape remained part of local memory. Then, in 1917, another astonishing turn came from the deathbed of Joseph Beard, a 60-year-old farmer. According to the sheriff’s office, Beard confessed that he and two other men had actually killed Buckley 25 years earlier.
The old case, once sealed by conviction, punishment, and pardon, was suddenly reopened by a dying man’s conscience.
Confession Shows Fate Intervened
It was revealed by the sheriff’s office that Joseph Beard, who died last Sunday, aged 60 years, on a farm near this city, had confessed on his death bed that 25 years ago he and two other men killed William Buckley, in this section, for which crime Will Purvis, who now lives in Lamar County, Miss., escaped death by hanging only because the noose about his neck slipped after the trap on the gallows had been sprung.
According to the story, Buckley revealed to the authorities the activities of “white cappers,’ who operated in this section more than a quarter of a century ago, when Wm. Buckley was shot from ambush and killed. This was in 1892. Purvis was convicted of murder after a sensational trial and was sentenced to be hanged.
The execution was to be public, and there were hundreds of persons present to witness it. When the trap was sprung, the noose slipped and Purvis fell from the scaffold unharmed.
Many of the spectators, superstitious over the thwarted execution, induced the authorities to place Purvis back in jail, and an appeal to the governor resulted in a commutation of the death sentence to life imprisonment. Seven years later, Purvis was pardoned.
Beard first confessed his part in Buckley’s murder to members of a religious sect, to clear his conscience. Later, when Beard was dying, the authorities were notified.
Beard, it was said, gave the names of the two men who, he said, participated with him in the killing, and the authorities say they know where to locate them.
The authorities, however, declined to say whether any action will be taken against the men, after the long lapse of time.
Source: Pine Bluff Daily Graphic. Pine Bluff, Ark. March 11, 1917.
