At the Raymond St. Jail in the City of Brooklyn,
New York State's last execution by hanging took place 120 years ago come this
Sunday, Dec. 6th. German immigrant John Greenwall, a tailor by trade and a thief
by rap sheet and reputation, was hanged for the murder of Manhattan hat firm
senior staffer Lyman Smith Weeks during a burglary of the victim's DeKalb Ave.
home March 15, 1887. After Greenwall's hanging Dec. 6, 1889, all
capital sentences in the state were carried out by electrocution.
To note that date marking the transition from
"the noose" to "the chair" in capital punishment history, the New York
Correction History Society (NYCHS) website -- www.correctionhistory.org --
has unveiled a 2-Part presentation that examines the case in detail. The study
raises questions about the prosecutorial conduct and judicial rulings that
resulted, after two trials, in the condemned man's state-implemented
broken-neck death.
The presentation also tells
- how Greenwall's jail staff friend,
an African-American porter, attempted to prove the convict innocent
in a most bizarre way and
- how jail's Catholic chaplain purchased a burial
plot for Greenwall in East Flatbush's Holy Cross Cemetery where 27 years later
the priest himself was buried, having died a few days after
being victimized by a anarchist chef's terrorist attempt to poison
hundreds at a Chicago dinner to honor a newly-named archbishop.
A century or so ago, issues of capital punishment
and terrorism -- sound familiar? The NYCHS presentation -- entitled "Brooklyn
Jail Scene of NYS' Last Hanging Execution 120 Years Ago Dec. 6th" -- can be
accessed from its icon box near the top of the home page of the NYCHS website
at
Thomas C. McCarthy
NYCHS general
secretary/webmaster