200 Prisoners Witness Hanging, Meant As Moral Lesson

Chicago, 1920
----------
200 Prisoners See Hanging As Moral Lesson

Murderer Goes to His Death on Gallows While Fellow Prisoners Look On - Governor's Order is Defied.

By United Press Leased Wire

Chicago -- Two hundred prisoners in the Cook County jail today witnessed the hanging of Raffalo Durrage. The men stood in their cells, with windows facing on a court and saw Durrage go to his death, as "moral lesson."

Jailer W. T. Daveis and Sheriff C. W. Peters arranged for the prisoners to see the execution despite protests from Chicago club women, social leaders and Governor Frank O. Lowden.

"The governor misunderstood the circumstances," said Jailer Daveis. "He thought we were going to allow all prisoners to witness the hanging. Instead we merely did not remove the prisoners who occupied cells facing on the court where the scaffold was erected." The prisoners stood in the windows and watched the trap sprung. A few turned away but the majority gazed at the spectacle without flinching. Durrage was convicted of murdering his wife and Omofrio Gargano.

In all former hangings, prisoners were removed from cells facing the court where the hangings are to be held.

The hanging was held an hour earlier than the time set in order to prevent court action allowing a stay of execution.

All telephones to the jail were disconnected to prevent word of a last minute reprieve being received. This action, Jailer Daveis explained, was taken as a result of a stay of execution being granted as the death march was about to start in a recent hanging here. The hanging took place before the prisoner witnesses had breakfast. The only word uttered as the body was taken down, was a shrill cry from one of the cells.

"When do we eat?"

--The Appleton Daily Post, Appleton, Wisconsin, January 2, 1920, page 1.

Comment: The hanging was an hour earlier than the time set and all the telephones were disconnected to prevent the possibility of a reprieve. If I'm governor, this is Jailer Daveis' last official duty as Jailer. By the way, it's probably Davies, but it has it with this spelling more than once.