Execution of Thos. J. Armstrong in Philadelphia.
On Friday last Thomas J. Armstrong, a young man not twenty one years of age, was executed in Philadelphia for the premeditated killing of Robert Crawford. The deceased was an old man, who kept a small shop and dealt in yarn. Armstrong was a lad of dishonest habits, but attached to a most respectable family, and connected with one of the leading Presbyterian churches in the North. He maintained his association with this church up to the time of the murder.The hanging took place in the prison yard where the gallows was overtooked by upwards of a hundred prisoners. The other spectators were limited in number to thirty including the jury, the reporters and the deputy sheriff Tickets were at a premium of fifty dollars and a thousand people walked out of the city and surrounded he jail for three hours.
Armstrong was dressed in a plain suit of black, with a frock coat. He wore no necktie, and his head was bare. He was very pals and he wore no serious countenance; but he was as firm as at any period of his triad, and his step betrayed no symptom of fear or faltering. On arriving at the scaffold he mounted the step without any appearance of fear, and he took his place under the fatal noose with an unnerved form
During the prayer offered by the Rev. Mr. McAuley, Armstrong listened calmly, and then advancing, spoke in a firm voice, as follows:
‘ "My friends, let me say in passing I die in peace with my Maker, and if at this moment a pardon were offered to me on condition of giving up my Maker I would not take it. To the few people here, I would advise them to take warning by my fate Sabbath-breaking was the first cause I bid you farewell. To the prison keepers, to Mr. Perkins, to Sheriff Kern, and to my spiritual adviser, Mr. McAuley, I bid farewell; gentlemen, I bid you all farewell; I now die in peace with everybody."
’ There was much disappointment that the dying man had made no allusion to the crime for which he was about to suffer, and at the last moment he showed the same reticence in this respect as at the time of his sentence.--At the conclusion of his remarks the fatal rope was placed about his neck, and all except the sheriff and the condemned left the scaffold. He snook hands with them all, and when Mr. McAuley was about to leave him he whispered something in his ear, and then kissed him.
The noose was fixed, the ghastly white cap was drawn down over the face of the condemned, the sheriff took his leave, and the murderer of Robt. Crawford was left standing alone. As the cap was about being drawn down Armstrong said, ‘"Good-bye, people."’--After these preliminaries he stood as firm as man ever stood while in the same position.--There were no signs of tremor, even the hands, which were thrust forward of his breast, did not move, and there was no clutching of fingers during this terrible moment. There was a momentary delay before the prop was drawn. This over, the sheriff dropped a white handkerchief, the signal was seen by the Jack Ketch concealed in an adjacent stable, the cord was drawn, and the mortal part of Thos. J. Armstrong was dangling between Heaven and earth. The condemned had a fall of about three and a half feet, and his death was almost instantaneous.
