The last man who had the “honor” of being hanged in the yard of the Tombs Prison was Harry Carlton, better known as “Handsome Harry,” which took place December 5th, 1889. Carlton was said to be a daring criminal, and had an exceedingly unsavory and nervy record for fifteen years previous to his death. He was convicted of the murder of Policeman James Brennan, whom he shot on the night of October 26th, 1888, in Fifty-ninth Street near Second Avenue. On the morning of his execution, when they awoke him out of a sound sleep, he asked the time of day. When they informed him it was five o’clock, he replied, “Great Scott, my time is getting short.”
Carlton’s father came to the Tombs that morning and begged Warden Osborne to permit him to see his son pay the penalty of the law, but the Warden denied his request. Shortly after seven, Carlton heard the Death Warrant read. Soon after he was led to the scaffold, where Hangman Atkinson adjusted the rope and put the black cape over his face, and at seven twenty-nine a. m. the drop fell and he was launched into eternity. In five minutes afterwards his lifeless body dangled on the scaffold. At nine-thirty a hearse drove into the yard and his body was put in a casket and taken to the cemetery, followed by another carriage, in which were Carlton’s wife and child.
Up till last hanging in 1889, murder, riot and rowdyism were never more common, showing clearly that the Tombs’ execution had no deterrent effect whatever on the criminal classes of the city, but the opposite. Murder went on just the same. From the time when Colt killed Adams in August, 1841, till the present, the Tombs has not been without a score of homicidal inmates and many of them of good standing in the comunity. Carlyle Harris, Dr. Buchanan, Dr. Kennedy, Dr. Meyer, Albert T. Patrick, Harry K. Thaw and many others came from good families.
The following list of criminals executed from 1838 to 1889 is taken from the official records of the Tombs:
Albert Hicks, July 30th, 1860 alias Johnson
The Protestant chapel. Sing Sing prison.]
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One of the never-to-be-forgotten visits of my life was the one I paid to the Death Chamber at Sing Sing on October 11th, 1900.