THREE EXECUTED FOR
SLAYING CAB DRIVER
Soldiers Hanged Today at Lansing, Kans.
LANSING, Kan, March 1---Three soldiers who killed
a taxicab driver died on the gallows early today in Kansas' first triple execution since the state resumed capital
punishment two decades ago.
The three Negro enlisted men, hanged under army
supervision, were Chastine Beverly, 25, Balty, Va.; Louis M. Suttles, 26, Chattanooga, Tenn., and James Riggins,
28, Birmingham, Ala.
All wore regulation army uniforms stipped of insignia.
They went to their death quietly.
They were convicted at Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo., of
fatally beating Harry Langly, a Waynesville, Mo., cab driver and stealing his cab and money in September, 1951.
Military authorities and President Eisenhower upheld
the death sentences fixed by a court-martial. (Chillicothe, Missouri, Tribune ~ March 1, 1955)
TWO SOLDIERS PUT TO
DEATH FOR SLAYINGS
FT. LEAVENWORTH, Kan.---The Army hanged two soldiers
early today for separate slayings almost four years ago in Germany and North Carolina.
They were Winfred D. Moore, Virginia Beach, Va.,
and Thomas J. Edwards, Ardmore, Okla., both 23-year-old Negroes.
They went to their deaths calmly without any last
words.
They wore regulation olive drab uniforms without
insignia.
The executions were carried out at the Army's disciplinry
barracks at Ft. Leavenworth.
A general court-martial at Ft. Bragg, N.C., sentenced
Moore to death after convicting him of slaying Charles Pettit, a cab driver, on June 30, 1953. Pettit was slain
in the course of a robery at the military post.
Moore's wife Patricia lives at Columbus, Ga. His parents are Mr. and Mrs. Robert W. Moore of Virginia Beach. Edwards
was convicted of the slaying of a German girl at Kitzinen, Germany, in March 1953. His wife, a daughter, and his
parents, Mr. and Mrs. Henry N. Edwards, live at Ardmore.
Military personnel carried out the hangings. Col.
James W. Davis, commandant of the barracks, supervised the 30 officers and enlisted men assigned to the task. A
master sergeant sprung the trap. The Army declined to identify him.
A temporary platform was built in the station power
plant with the traditional 13 steps. A guard walked at each side of Edwards as he climbed the steps. They repeated
the procedure with Moore.
The executions were the first at Ft. Leavenworth
since the 1940s. In the interim, condemned military men were executed at the Kansas State Prison at nearby Lansing.
Kansas authorities recently served notice they would no longer execute Army prisoners.
Edwards received a telegram from the White House
yesterday notifying him his plea for a delay had been rejected. He had dispatched two letters to President Eisenhower
in recent days asking for a reprieve. (The Daily Times News ~ Burlington, North Carolina ~ February 14, 1957)
FIVE NAZI PRISONERS ARE
EXECUTED IN HISTORICAL ACTION
Fort Leavenworth, Kan., July 10---Five German prisoners
of war, sentenced to death for the murder of a fellow prisoner, were hanged early this morning at the U.S. disciplinary
barracks in a move unprecedented in the annals of United States military history.
The prisoners, termed "fanatical Nazis"
by army authorities, were convicted Jan. 25, 1944, at Camp Graber, Okla., for the murder of Johannes Kunze at the
Tonkawa, Okla., brauch compound. They were the first foreign war prisoners ever to be executed in the United States.
The executed Germans, all members of Rommel's Afrika
korps, were:
Walter Beyer, 32, whose rank was equivalent to
that of a first sergeant in the U.S. army; Berthold Seidel, 30, a staff sergeant; Hans Demme, 23, sergeant; Hans
Schomer, 27, sergeant, and Willi Scholz, 22, corporal.
All went to their deaths clad in their German uniforms,
their only request. Their last meal consisted only of the regular issued rations. Beyer, the ranking member of
the group, ws the first to go to the gallows. Col. William S. Eley, commandant of the disciplinary barracks, read
the execution order, relayed to the prisoner through an interpreter. (The Independent Record ~ Helena, Montana
~ July 10, 1945)
THE DEATH PENALTY
PAID
Jake and Joe Tobler Hanged in the Jail at Wichita,
Kansas
WICHITA, Kan., Nov. 22---Jake and Joe Tobler, colored,
were hanged yesterday at 10:25 in the county jail in the presence of but a few people, by Federal authorities,
Deputy Marshal Howard superintending.
The crime for which they were executed was the
killing of Cass and Gody Kuntz, near the Sax and Fox agency, in August, 1885. The murdered men were on their way
from Vinitia to northern Texas, and were killed while asleep in their camp, about one mile from the Sax and Fox
agency. The Tobler boys were soon after arrested with property of the murdered men in their possession, and confessed
their guilt in the presence of a number of people. They were convicted at the September term of the United States
court. (Newark, Ohio, Daily Advocate ~ November 22, 1888)
CARL HORNE TRIED AND
CONVICTED
Carl Horne has been tried and convicted for the
murder of Phillip Friend, by the Criminal Court of Leavenworth. This is his second trial, he being convicted on
the first, but judgment reversed by the Supreme Court, to which the case was carried on error. A motion is now
made for an arrest of judgment. (Freedom's Champion, December 20, 1862, page 2)
FIRST LEGAL EXECUTION
The first legal execution by hanging in the State
of Kansas took place at Leavenworth on the 13th inst. A German, named Carl Horne, was hung for murder. (New York
Herald, February 22, 1863)
BEN LEWIS TRIED ON OWN
CONFESSIONS
We learn from the Paola Argus that the Indian Ben
Lewis, tried on his own confessions, at the recent term of the District Court of Miami county, for the killing
of a soldier some months since, about six miles north of town, was convicted of murder in the first degree, and
sentenced to be hung on the 10th of August next. (Freedoms Champion, July 26, 1866, page 3)
EXECUTION OF MELVIN
BAUGHN
Seneca, Sept. 18, 1868
Editor Champion and Press: Today at three o'clock
and twenty-five minutes, Melvin Baughn paid the the extreme penalty of the law. The execution was conducted in
front of the jail in Seneca, inside of a canvass enclosure. A rope was stretched on stakes about twenty feet from
the enclosure and twenty guards armed with muskets and bayonets were stationed on the outside of the rope to keep
back the crowd. They were commanded by Capt. A. K. Moore. The crowd was very quiet and everything passed off in
the best of order. About twenty persons, including the Sheriff and deputy, two ministers of the gospel, and two
surgeons were admitted to the inside of the canvass. He made no confession, and evidently had made up his mind
to die game. He never quailed before the gallows, but stepped onto the scaffold with as much nonchalance as a practiced
stump orator amid the plaudits of an admiring multitude. He stood for about ten minutes after the black cap was
drawn over his face before the drop fell. He was still and upright as a statue, and never moved a muscle during
the awful suspense. When asked by Sheriff Kiger after the reading of the sentence and death warrant if he had anything
to say, he responded that he had been tried by his countrymen and sentenced, and now he was ready to suffer the
penalty imposed by the law; that it was usual for men in his condition to make a confession, but that he had no
confession to make. He handed a written document to Sheriff Kiger, thanking him and his son Lemuel, (deputy) for
the uniform kindness and courtesy he had received while a prisoner in their care.
He acknowledged to your correspondent and to others, that he killed him, as he took good aim. He acknowledged to
the shooting of a man by the name of Flood, on the Platte, when he was in the employ of the Overland Mail company.
(Weekly Champion and Press, September 25, 1868, page 1)
HANGED
Wichita, Kas., Nov. 15, - Lee Mosier was hanged
here this morning. The execution was conducted by United States Marshall Sherritt and there was not a hitch in
the proceedings. The only thing Mosier had to say was "I don't like to die this way." The drop fell at
exactly 9:35 o'clock and Mosier's body shot downward. His neck was broken and he died in 12-1/2 minutes. A. R.
Museller, one of the attorneys who defended Mosier in the United States court, received a telegram this morning
from President Cleveland in answer to one asking for clemency:
"I am very sorry that my conception of public
duty will not permit me to interfere in the case, thought I am much moved by sympathy for his worthy and suffering
parents. Grover Cleveland" (Duluth Daily News, November 16, 1887, page 1)
OFFICER TO HANG
FOR WIFE'S DEATH
Fort Leavenworth, Kan. (AP) - An Army warrant officer
from San Antonio, Texas, is scheduled to be hanged Saturday for the 1952 slaying of his wife in Munich, Germany.
Bernard J. O'Brien, 33, will be executed at the
Kansas State Penitentiary at nearby Lansing.
O'Brien was convicted by an Army court-martial
at Munich in 1952 and sentenced to die. He was accused of killing his wife, Dorothy, earlier in the year. (Dallas
Morning News, July 30, 1954, page 3, part 3)
ARMY EXECUTES SLAYER OF
KOREAN
Fort Leavenworth, Kan. (UPI) - A 30 year old U.
S. Army private who had been under the death sentence since 1951 was hanged for the murder of a Korean civilian.
John E. Day, Jr., formerly of Washington, was sentenced
by an Army court martial for the slaying Dec. 23, 1950, of Lee Mak Chun of Seoul. (Dallas Morning News, September
25, 1959, page 16, section 4)
TWO RECEIVE DEATH
IN KANSAS SLAYINGS
Garden City, Kan. (AP) - Ex-convicts Richard Eugene
Hickock, 28, and Perry Edward Smith, 31, were convicted Tuesday of first degree murder in the robbery-slaying last
November of the Herbert W. Clutter family. The jury sentenced them to die by hanging.
Hickock and Smith were convicted of using a knife
and shotgun last Nov. 15 in the brutal killing of Mr. and Mrs. Clutter, a daughter, Nancy, 16 and a son, Kenyon,
15.
The pair displayed no emotion at the verdict.
Statements made to police by the two men before
the trial said they killed the Clutters because they "did not want any witnesses" to the robbery.
The holdup netted them a radio, a pair of binoculars
and less than $50 in cash.
The crime was considered one of the most shocking
in Kansas history.
The defense did not challenge the state's case
but made pleas for life imprisonment rather than the death penalty.
Logan Green who assisted County Attorney Duane West in the prosecution, told the jurors it is up to them to see
that the laws of the state are enforced.
Green noted the pleas by court appointed defense
attorneys, Harrison Smith and A. N. Fleming, and said
"I wish these two men (the defense attorneys) had been present Nov. 15 to make a plea for mercy for Nancy
Clutter. I dare say there would have been six bodies found instead of four." (Dallas Morning News, March 30,
1960)
SOLDIER EXECUTED AT
FORT LEAVENWORTH POST
FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kans.,---Pvt. Levi Brandon, 23,
Kansas City, Kans., soldier convicted by a military court of raping a 17 year old waitress last New Year's morning,
was executed on the gallows Monday at the military post. Only military officials, including an army chaplain, designated
by the commanding general of the seventh service command witnessed the execution.
(Mason City, Iowa, Globe Gazette ~ July 26, 1943)
DELAY DECISION
ON SLAYER'S EXECUTION
TOPEKA---A decision was delayed Friday on the attempt
of Nathaniel Germany, 27-year-old Negro, to escape the gallows for the 1947 murder of David Gray, Kansas City,
Kas., junior college student.
Counsel for Germany asked the Supreme Court for
a 10-day delay to prepare a brief in answer to the state's motion for dismissal of the condemned man's application
for a writ of habeas corpus.
The court granted a delay but took under advisement
the amount of time to be allowed.
Germany is seeking the habeas corpus writ on the
grounds his constitutional rights were violated. The high court already has upheld his conviction and sentence.
The state has asked that the writ application be
dismissed and contends all questions raised by Germany already have been ruled on by the court.
The new delay was encountered when the state's
motion came up for a hearing.
Germany was scheduled to be hanged last Dec 3 but
execution has been stayed twice while his attorney, Elisha Scott of Topeka, exhausts his client's legal rights
in the state courts. (Atchison Daily Globe ~ January 9, 1953)
Martin W. Bates, a boy of 19, was hanged at Burlinghame,
Kansas, on the 20th, for the murder of Abel Pailey. (Lowell Daily Citizen and News, March 2, 1867, page 2)
The trial of Martin W. Bates, indicted for the murder of Abel Polley, Esq., a much esteemed citizen of Burlington,
Osage county, commenced yesterday in the District Court for that county. (Weekly Champion and Press, January 3,
1867, page 4)
GI'S SENTENCED
TO HANG FOR SLAYING OF KANSAN
Russell, Kan. (AP) - Two teenage soldiers were convicted of murder Tuesday and sentenced to hang for the slaying
of a railroad man in Western Kansas in June.
James Douglas Latham, 19, of Mauriceville, Texas and George Ronald York, 18, of Jacksonville, Fla., were convicted
of slaying Otto Ziegler, 62, of Oakley, Kan.
The 12-man jury deliberated about 6 hours and 45 minutes rejecting a plea York and Latham were insane.
They also are accused of six other murders in Florida, Tennessee, Illinois and Colorado on a wild spree which started
May 24, with their escape from an Army stockade at Fort Hood, Texas, and ended at a roadblock near Salt Lake City
on June 10.
York and Latham sat quietly in the courtroom as the verdict was read. Neither showed any emotion. York's mother,
Mrs. Horace A. York, wept quietly and was led from the courtroom by a friend.
The trial began Oct. 23 on a change of venue from Wallace county, near the Colorado line, where Ziegler was killed
and robbed of $51.
Defense attorneys concentrated their final arguments on pleas against the death penalty. York and Latham did not
take the stand during the trial.
Marvin Thompson one of the four court-appointed defense attorneys, argued that the state failed to prove premeditation
- a requirement in first degree murder convictions.
"It's our position that it's not a first degree murder case," he told the jury.
"It's not even a very good second degree murder case."
Defense attorneys also contended there is a serious doubt of the youths' mental condition citing an Army record
which sets out mental disturbances. (Dallas Morning News, November 8, 1961)
Kansas to Hang Confessed Killers
Russell, Kan. (UPI) - Two confessed killers, convicted by a district court jury after a cross country crime spree
that took seven lives were sentenced to be hanged Jan. 30 "by the neck until dead."
George R. York and James D. Latham stood with heads bowed and appeared very serious as Judge Benedict Cruise pronounced
sentence and told the youths to use the brief time remaining in their lives to turn to God.
The hanging was set for 12:01 a.m. CST at the Kansas State Prison in Lansing. (Dallas Morning News, December 4,
1961, page 7, section 1)
Last Minute Stay Given Two Men
Lansing, Kan., (AP) - Condemned killers James Douglas Latham and George Ronald York were granted a last minute
stay of execution Wednesday just after they had ordered their last meal and flipped a coin to determine which should
be hanged first.
They were under sentence to hang after midnight for the slaying of Otto Ziegler, 62 year old Oakley, Kan., railroad
man, one of seven persons they killed in a cross country crime orgy.
The U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Denver, Colo., stayed the execution for 30 days. Roy Cook, attorney for the
killers, pleaded that their constitutional rights had been violated because they were denied court-appointed counsel
at their preliminary hearing. (Dallas Morning News, June 20, 1963)
APPEALS COURT UPHOLDS MURDER CONVICTIONS OF TWO
Denver, Colo., (AP) - A three judge court of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the murder convictions
of George York, 19, and James Latham, 20.
The two AWOL soldiers are under sentence of death for the slaying of Otto Ziegler, a 63 year old Oakley, Kan.,
railroad worker, during a 17-day crime spree extending from Florida to Colorado two years
ago.
The two were under sentence to be hanged at the Kansas penitentiary in Lansing, June 20 until the circuit court
granted a stay of execution to consider the appeal.
Under the unanimous decision handed down Wednesday, the two were granted 90 days for filing a further appeal with
the supreme court of the United States.
York and Latham admitted seven killings during their crime spree. They were arrested near Grantsville, Utah, June
10, 1961 after the killing of Rachel Moyer, 18-year-old waitress at Craig in Northwest Colorado.
They were returned to Sharon, Kan., for trial in the slaying of Ziegler, but the actual trial was moved to Russell
County, Kan., on a change of venue. (Dallas Morning News, July 13, 1963)
EXECUTION STAY GRANTED SOLDIER
Topeka, Kan. (UPI) - A stay of execution was granted by Federal Judge Walter A. Huxman to Pvt. John A. Bennett,
24-year-old Negro who was to have been hanged at the U.S. disciplinary barracks in Fort Leavenworth.
Bennett, convicted of the rape and attempted murder of an 11-year-old Austrian girl, had been scheduled to go to
the gallows at 12:01 a.m. Thursday.
In his previous appeals, Bennett claimed that "racial hostility" surrounded the court martial and that
he should have been tried by Austrian authorities and not by the military tribunal. (Dallas Morning News, March
11, 1960)
TRAPPED FUGITIVE RIDDLES
U.S. AGENT, ESCAPES WITH PAL
Pair Shoots Way Out of Post Office at Topeka; Sought
for Bank Raid
Plattsmouth, Nebr. - April 16 - Two gunmen who
shot Federal Agent W. W. Baker at Topeka Friday were captured here at night by Sheriff Homer Sylvester without
resistance.
TOPEKA, Kan. April 16, Two gangsters blasted their
way out of a trap in Topeka's downtown post office Friday with a fusillade of shots that riddled a young Federal
agent bent on solving an $18,000 New York Bank robbery.
Wayne W. Baker, 27, a Federal Bureau of Investigation
agent on his first major assignment was wounded critically by four bullets. A bystander, O. D. Davis, was shot
in the foot.
Later the fleeing bandits kidnapped a doctor and
forced him to treat the wounds one of them had suffered in the fight.
City Marshal P. M. Crawford of Sabetha, Kan., said
Dr. Sam Hibbard of that town was kidnapped and forced to treat an arm wound for one of the two men.
Crawford said the men telephoned Dr. Hibbard from
a farmhouse a few miles north of Sabetha. Hibbard was confronted by two armed desperadoes on his arrival.
Take Doctor's Car
The pair forced the physician to drive them to
Sabetha in his own automobile and go to his office, where he bandaged the arm wound. Extent of the injury was not
determined definitely.
The gunmen then forced Dr. Hibbard to drive them
several miles north of Sabetha, ejected him from the car and continued their flight northward toward Lincoln, Nebr.
Crawford said the gunmen's car, bearing New York
license plates, was found wrecked in a ditch near the farmhouse. A wrecker was to bring the machine here for examination.
The fugitives, identified by F. B. I. Director
J. Edgar Hoover as Gerald Lewis and Robert Suhay, fled in a black coupe. They have been hunted for the March 12
robbery of the Northern Westchester bank of Katonah, N.Y. Their westward-bound automobile was the object of one
of the most vigorous searches ever organized in Kansas.
Twenty shots were fired in the furious fighting
through the marble lobby of the post office just before noon. Some of the spectators thought one of the fugitives
also was wounded but the stories of the closer witnesses were sealed by Government agents who took extraordinary
precautions to keep secret the details.
Call for Package
The two fugitives appeared casually at the post
office and one of them called for a package Federal agents had marked. There were three agents who had posted themselves
in separated positions for three days.
At a signal from a clerk at the mail window, Baker
stepped forward, covered the suspect and ordered him to put up his hands. In answer, the second fugitive opened
fire, shooting the agent in the back. Baker whirled and another bullet struck him in the chest. Two more bullets
struck him in the legs.
Bystander Davis was writing at one of the lobby
tables.
Mrs. J. Bunch, who was standing at a desk in the
half-block-long lobby, said:
"I heard some man yell "I'm shot."
"There were two girls standing beside me and
as soon as the shots were fired, we all fell on the floor and got under the table.
There must have been a dozen shots before I saw them an (Baker) fall. Then two other men began shooting at a fellow
who was running out of the lobby."
Highway Guard Organized
C. C. McComas, who operates a food market across
the street from the post office, said: "The two came out first, on a dogtrot, the agents just behind them.
One dropped an arm at his side, probably wounded. They continued shooting as they crossed the street, to the northwest
corner where the car was parked."
Frank Stone Jr., assistant director of the Kansas
Highway Patrol said. "The strongest guard on the highways we've ever had" was organized for the pursuit.
Dwight Brantley, Federal agent in charge at Kansas
City, came here by airplane.
"I am trying to piece this thing together
so I can find out what happened." Was his single comment.
Even the condition of Baker, who underwent an emergency
operation for removal of several of the bullets was sheathed in the elaborate secrecy of the F. B. I. However,
it was known the agent's condition was critical and that his associates were prepared for possible blood transfusions.
Is Native of Yuma
Baker, a native of Yuma, Ariz., entered the bureau
in 1933 as a law clerk. In 1936 he enrolled in the special training course for Federal agents and when he was graduated
early this year he was assigned to the branch at Kansas City. He is unmarried.
Three men held up the Katonah bank March 12 two weeks after Merle Vandenbush, Midwestern desperado, had looted
it of $17,600 only to be captured with two companions a few miles away.
Lewis and Suhay were named as the men who actually
committed the second robbery by New York Department of Justice agents three weeks ago when they arrested John M.
Maurer, James O'Reilly and Leonard Haberman, all of New York City. (The Dallas Morning News, April 17, 1937, Section
1, Page 16)
Gangsters Puzzle Country Sheriff; They Didn't Shoot
G-Man's Condition Still Grave, $17,000 Taken From
2 Captive Thugs
Kansas City, Kan. April 17 - Federal and city officers
backtracked Saturday a trail of money left by two New York gunmen before they were captured by a country Sheriff
in Nebraska Friday night as they fled from the scene of a Topeka post office battle that left a young G-man gravely
wounded.
More than $17,000, virtually the same amount stolen
in a bank robbery at Katonah, N. Y., March 17, was found on the trail of Robert Suhay and Alfred Power, New York
gangsters brought here after their bloodless arrest at Plattsmouth.
On the outcome of bullet wounds suffered by Wayne
W. Baker, 27, Federal Bureau of Investigation agent, will depend the gravity of charges to be brought against Suhay
and Power, District Attorney Alexander said at Topeka.
Baker's condition was reported unchanged. His intestines
perforated by bullets as he attempted to make this first major arrest, his recovery was said to be doubtful.
Doctor Leads G-Men to Cash
Dwight Brantley, in charge of the Kansas City division
of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said a Kansas doctor, presumed to be Dr. S. M. Hibbard of Sebetha, led
officers to $6,954.15 left by the two men in a hotel room here.
Brantley said Power and Suhay gave a Kansas doctor
keys to a Kansas City hotel room in which they told him there was a lot of money and he could have it.
Brantley declined to name the doctor. Kansas City
officers found the money at the hotel.
Dr. Hibbard was captured by the fugitives at Sabetha
and forced to treat one of them.
Homer Sylvester, 5-foot 4-inch Sheriff who arrested
the men without a struggle after they lost their way through the streets of Plattsmouth, a town of 3,700, said
they had $11,000 concealed in their clothing.
Brantley declined to say which of the two men fired
the shots in the Topeka post office lobby that wounded Baker.
Pair Admits Shooting
J. Edgar Hoover, chief of the F. B. I. announced
at Washington the two had admitted participating in the shooting.
Suhay was wounded in the arm as the pair fled from
officers at Topeka Brantley said the wound was not serious.
Brantley said the men were not in the Jackson County
jail, on top of the skyscraper courthouse here, but would not say where they are being held.
Sylvester, who admitted he was just a bit nervous
after the capture, but not during it, thinks he and his brother were mighty lucky in staging the arrests without
a shot being fired.
Sylvester said he cautioned his brother not to
get too close to the gangsters' car while they were trailing it eight miles into town, because he said "if
you drive up alongside and they have a machine gun, they get the breaks."
He said the New York men knew they were being trailed
during the last six miles of the chase and that he added, is all the more reason why he can't understand why they
didn't fight it out when they finally found they had lost their way. (Dallas Morning News, April 18, 1937, Pages
1 & 10)
GANGSTERS' BULLET WOUNDS ARE FATAL TO FEDERAL AGENT
Captured Thugs to Face Speedy Murder Indictment,
Prosecutor Says
Topeka, Kan. April 18 - The bullets of two New
York gunmen he sought to trap two days ago claimed the life of a young Federal agent early Sunday just as his fellow
G-man were clamping an $11,00 web of evidence about the spectacular gangsters.
W. W. Baker, 27, the agent, died in a hospital here of four bullet wounds he suffered in his first major assignment.
An emergency operation and at least two blood transfusions were futile.
The death of the agent was shielded in such secrecy
by the Federal Bureau of Investigation that it did not become publicly known until the body was removed to a funeral
home. Baker's father, a resident of Yuma, Ariz., was understood to be in seclusion here.
In near-by Kansas City Federal agents held Alfred
Power and Robert Suhay, gangsters accused of an $18,000 Katonah (N.Y.) bank robbery, to face what United States
Attorney S. S. Alexander said would be a prompt indictment for murder. The prosecutor indicated the indictment
would be sought before a June grand jury, although there was a possibility of a special grand jury being called
earlier. Alexander said the death penalty would be demanded.
The two gangsters blasted their way out of a trap
Friday in Topeka's downtown post office. As Baker was cut down by bullets the return fire of his fellow agents
wounded Suhay in the left wrist.
Homer Sylvester, 5-foot, 4-inch, Nebraska Sheriff,
and his deputy seized the gangsters without a shot Friday night after the New Yorkers lost their way through the
streets of Plattsmouth, Nebr., a town of 3,700. (The Dallas Morning News, April 19, 1937, page 1, section 1)
TO DIE AUG. 12, KILLERS HAPPY IT'S NOT 13TH
Leavenworth, Kan., June 10 - Robert J. Suhay and
Glenn Applegate, convicted slayers of Federal Agent Wimberly W. Baker, were sentenced Friday to hang in the Federal
penitentiary here between 3 and 8 a.m. Friday, Aug. 12.
"That's a good break; that's good luck."
Applegate remarked to a prison deputy. "It could have been Friday the 13th."
The two were convicted for the fatal wounding of
Baker in Topeka April 16, 1937. The young G-man was shot as he accosted the pair when they called at the Topeka
post office for mail.
Suhay and Applegate, object of a search for the
$18,300 robbery of a bank at Katonah, N.Y., were captured the night of the Topeka shooting at Plattsmouth, Neb.
Their appeals from the death sentence were confirmed
by the United States Circuit Court and the United States Supreme Court. Sentence was passed by District Judge Richard
J. Hopkins, who presided at their trial. (The Dallas Morning News, June 11, 1938, Section 1, Page 1)
CARL PANZRAN
Murderer of 22 Jeers as Hanged
Leavenworth, Kan., Sept. 5 (AP) - Carl Panzran,
self-declared slayer of twenty-two persons, was hanged at the Federal prison early Friday for the murder of W.
G. Warnke, civilian laundry foreman at the penitentiary where Panzran was serving a sentence for burglary imposed
by a District of Columbia court.
President Hoover Thursday night denied a plea for
clemency.
The slayer was pronounced dead at 6:19 a.m.
Jeering the crowd as he walked to the gallows,
Panzran noted two chaplains present. He asked the warden that they be removed. The chaplains left in accordance
with his will.
Panzran serving his sixth prison sentence, struck
down the laundry foreman with a heavy iron bar June 19, 1929, in a frenzy of rage.
The hanging was the first legal execution in Kansas
since 1870, with the exception of that of a Federal prisoner at Wichita in 1888. The Kansas law provides capital
punishment only for treason. Panzran, however, was prosecuted under Federal statutes, his crime having been committed
on Federal property. (Dallas Morning News, September 6, 1930, page two, part 1)
LOWELL LEE ANDREWS
MAN IS HANGED FOR 3 KILLINGS
Lansing, Kan. (AP) - Lowell Lee Andrews, hanged
early Friday for the murder of his parents and sister, will be buried in the same cemetery where they were interred
four years ago after he killed them for their land and money.
Outwardly remorseless and disinterested, the 22
year old former University of Kansas Sophmore had nothing to say as he stood on the gallows trap at the state penitentiary
to pay the penalty for the killings he freely admitted.
His attorney had tried unsuccessfully to prove
him mentality ill. State and federal courts had granted three stays of execution. Thursday night Gov. John Anderson
refused to intervene. (Augusta Chronicle, December 1, 1962, Section A, page 3)
