Today’s Decent Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
In 18th century Belgium, dying on the wheel was the penalty for murder, and not only for men, either, for a young woman who had stabbed her husband to death was sentenced to be broken on the wheel.
Culled from: The Book of Execution
Wyoming Territorial Prisoner Du Jour!
They really were awful at keeping people imprisoned at the Wyoming Territorial Prison in Laramie, Wyoming. Witness, for example, the official Warden record book’s entry for Prisoner #12.
#12 George “Scotty” Franklin
December 27, 1873 – Robbery – Sweetwater County – 3 years – age 26 – Locksmith – New York.
Remarks: Convict escaped on the evening of March 9, 1874 with eight other prisoners in the attack on the Night Guard James Mills. Franklin let himself out of the cell with a homemade wooden key when he heard the commotion of the other prisoners attacking the guard on the second tier. He ran upstairs to help the prisoners over-power the guard; threw him in a cell and locked the door. The officers found the wooden key in his clothes after he escaped. Never recaptured, but the horses he and inmate James took were found 10 miles south of the city.
Culled from: Atlas of Wyoming Outlaws at the Territorial Prison