Today’s Faint Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
The first execution in the Ohio Penitentiary was that of Valentine Wagner, who was executed July 31, 1885, for the murder of his brother-in-law in Morrow county. He abhorred the idea of his tragic death and fainted into the arms of the executioners when the fatal hour arrived. His pleas for mercy echoed and re-echoed along the dreary prison walls, but to no avail, for he stepped off into the dark eternity at midnight July 31, 1885.
Culled from: The Ohio Penitentiary – 1899
Here’s an article from the day of the execution from The Galion Inquirer:
VALENTINE WAGNER
Doomed to Die To-Day.
The First Execution in the Ohio Penitentiary.
Under the New Law.
Sad Parting Scene.
A Cowering Criminal, He Weakens as His Day of Doom Approaches, and Faints and Falls on the Floor.
This is the day upon which Valentine Wagner was sentenced to pay the death penalty upon the scaffold for taking the life of his brother-in-law, Daniel Sheehan, near Johnsville, Morrow County, in the winter of 1882.
Almost three years the condemned man has been incarcerated in jail, most of the time at Mt. Gilead, but since last May he has spent the time in the penitentiary at Columbus, awaiting his execution and enduring all the misery that could fall to the lot of man. Wagner was taken to the penitentiary under the new law passed last winter, compelling all death sentences to be executed in the penitentiary. Governor Hoadly has been considerably exercised over this new law as relating to Wagner’s case, and has consulted Attorney-General Lawrence on the subject, and various effort being made to
COMMUTE WAGNER’S SENTENCE,
Governor Hoadly has decided not to interfere with the execution and he will be the first man hung at the Ohio penitentiary.
Wagner came from Germany with his parents when he was only about three years of age, and the greater part of his almost sixty years of active life has been spent in America, and in this part of Ohio. He resided about seven miles south-east of Galion on a farm which has been bankrupted and spent in an endeavor to free him of the crime for which he is to suffer death to-day. One of his daughters is Mrs. W. H. Helmuth, of this city, and it was from her residence that he last left Galion on the fatal night when he killed Sheehan.
A COWERING CRIMINAL.
Last Monday afternoon quite a sensation occurred in the execution department of the penitentiary. Sheriff Dawson, of Morrow county went down to see if all the arrangements were complete for the execution, and when Wagner learned the object of his visit he fainted and fell to the floor, and could not be revived. He was carried to his cell by the officers in charge, and after a time regained consciousness. The indications are that he will have to be dragged to the scaffold.
SCENE OF THE SCAFFOLD.
The following diagram shows the plan of the execution room, and where all future executions in Ohio will take place:
DESCRIPTION:—C, cell-house; E, execution-room, 15×15 feet; R, reception-room; G, guard-room; W, Wagner’s cell; T, the trap, which consists of two doors coming together at the center and swinging downward.
The doors are released by a swinging iron lever, operated by the sheriff while standing at the left of the condemned when he is in position to fall. Pads are so arranged as to prevent any noise when the doors drop. The rope is suspended from a heavy beam about seven feet from the scaffold, over the trap. It will be long enough to allow a fall of eight feet, so that the dying man will be within about a foot of the floor.
There was a faint hope expressed by the doomed man’s sons, Tuesday, that Governor Hoadly would interfere in
THE WAGNER EXECUTION.
The Governor remarked Tuesday that he had not made up his mind as yet, but he thought he would have to respite Valentine Wagner for a short time, in order to give Major Blackburn, his attorney, an opportunity to offer something new in the case. The following was received by the Governor that morning:
CINCINNATI, OHIO, JULY 28, 1885
TO GOVERNOR HOADLY: If you will respite Wagner for a short time I can now obtain and furnish you clear proof that the statements are untrue in every particular. Have but this moment reliably learned of it.
C.H. BLACKBURN.
The telegram of Major Blackburn to the Governor referred to the testimony of Carlin and Irwin, who were with the sheriff at the time he arrested Wagner and by whom it was proposed to show that he had made threats that he would cut the throat of Sheehan if he was not yet dead. Frank Wagner, of Mt. Gilead, a brother of the doomed man, and two sons of the prisoner, were at the Governor’s office till late this evening, endeavoring to get him to take some favorable action. Finally the Governor became tired and started to supper, but they hung to him and accompanied him to the hotel. Before leaving the office the Governor sent the following to Major Blackburn:
JULY 28, 1885.
TO MAJOR CHARLES H. BLACKBURN, Cincinnati, Ohio—My Dear Major: I have given to the case of Valentine Wagner, now in the Penitentiary under sentence of death, a careful and patient examination. The size of the record has made this a work of time. I have had Wagner’s mental condition examined by Dr. C. R. Montgomery, the physician of the Penitentiary, in connection with Dr. C. M. Finch, Superintendent of the Central Asylum for the Insane, and Dr. A. B. Richardson, Superintendent of the Athens Asylum for the Insane. These gentlemen inform me that they find no evidence of mental alienation in Wagner; that there are no symptoms of paralysis, and no physician indication pointing in the direction of insanity. They report him as being at the present time sane and responsible for his acts. They find no evidence of an epileptic condition. Ex-Sheriff Modie, of Morrow County, who had him in charge form December 19, 1882, to January 5, 1885, reports that during his long incarceration in jail there were no epileptic attacks. Under the circumstances I am compelled to ascribe the effects of intoxicating drinks these facts, which were presented to the jury at the trial as evidence of insanity. If Wagner is sane now it is quite clear to me that he was sane when the crime was committed, as nothing has since happened to him from a morbid mental condition. Coming to consider the nature of the act itself, I find that Wagner, being on extremely bad terms with his brother-in-law, Sheehan, and having repeatedly indulged in threats of violence to Sheehan, came to Sheehan’s on the night of December 18, 1882, somewhat under the influence of liquor, but not sufficiently so to deprive him of the control of his mind and actions. He came there, as he himself at that time said, for the purpose of killing Sheehan. The evidence of what transpired is furnished by members of his family, whose feelings and interests are in his favor and whose testimony against him, therefore, is entitled to the highest credence. After a short and angry parley with Sheehan he shot him twice. Soon after the vent he expressed his sorrow for what he had done, but the next day when perfectly sober, upon being arrested he told the Deputy Sheriff that he had killed Sheehan and supposed he was dead. He was answered that he was dead. He then replied: “If he was not I would take a knife and cut his throat.”
The condition of facts makes this, in my judgment without reasonable doubt, a case of murder in the first degree. It is true that he may have suspended the murderous purpose for a moment. It was, however, not abandoned, but in a moment resumed. This, in my opinion, did not reduce the grade of the crime from murder in the first to murder in the second degree. As this case was presented to the District, Circuit and Supreme Courts, and the conviction has been affirmed in all, it is my opinion that I ought not to disturb the result. I need not say that I have come to this conclusion with reluctance and regret. Yours very respectfully,
GEORGE HOADLY.
Wednesday two daughters, a son and son-in-law of the condemned man spent several hours with him, the scene being a most distressing one.
SAD PARTING SCENE.
The family of Wagner consisting of his father and mother, each over eighty years of age, his wife and children, eleven persons in all, went to the prison yesterday afternoon to see Wagner for the last time. The meeting and parting was a most affecting one, not even the guards caring to remain in the room to see the agony. Wagner remained in his cell all day and refused to eat any thing since Tuesday, and was very weak. He cried and moaned constantly. He was placed in charge of the Sheriff Wednesday who will have charge of the details of the execution. Wagner has grown so weak that it is believed by the officials that he will have to be carried to and supported on the scaffold.
HUNG AT 2:40 THIS MORNING.
Valentine Wagner was executed at the Ohio Penitentiary this morning at twenty minutes before three o’clock. His limbs trembled as he was led upon the scaffold, and while he was being pinioned he cried bitterly, protesting his moral innocence.
“MY GOD MEN DON’T HANG ME. I don’t know when I killed Dan. After I’m dead you’ll know I’m innocent,” pleaded the doomed man.
While he was yet praying for mercy the fatal noose was adjusted, and at exactly
2:40 THE TRAP WAS SPRUNG.
His neck was broken by the fall, and he died without a quiver. He was cut down in ten minutes, and this morning his body was shipped to Edison station, Morrow county. He was 57 years old.
Dissection Photo Du Jour!
School unknown, ca. 1885. An African-American woman stands to the left behind the dissectors, a broom handle in her hand. As with many photographs neither the name of the school nor the names of the people in this scene are known.
“What are we to make of an African-American woman, standing, a broom handle in hand, behind the dissecting table, her gaze fixed on the camera. We can speculate as to how race, gender, and class figure in this unsettling picture and wonder what her testimony would be, but it would be presumptuous to think that we can known from the photograph any version of her inner life. By drawing this photograph out of the shadows of history, however, and seeking the circumstances of its creation, we can at least bear witness.” – John Harley Warner
Culled from: Dissection: Photographs of a Rite of Passage in American Medicine
Andersonville Prisoner Diary Entry Du Jour!
This is the continuation of the 1864 diary of Andersonville prisoner Private George A. Hitchcock (see the archived version for all entries up until now).
Here’s today’s entry:
September 13th. A large number of “flankers” from our squad got out last night with those who went away, so that our rations are larger in consequence. Go it, boys, while you can. To-night we receive orders to be in readiness to start in the morning.
Culled from: Andersonville: Giving Up the Ghost