According the Warden, a nice man named Clinton Duffy, "Estimating the exact length of rope to be used was a tricky business, requiring the hand and eye of an expert." Duffy would have preferred to execute Rattlesnake James in the gas chamber, but the sentence was specific -- death by hanging.
New gallows were built.
Ever the gentleman, Rattlesnake James, wrote what we at the Thursday Club call a "bread and butter letter." "Dear Warden, just a line to thank you for your kindness to me since I have been here ... I want you to know I have no hard feelings against anyone ... I hope to meet you and the Governor in a better world ... "
Despite good intentions, the rope was the wrong length and the execution did not go as planned.
Warden Duffy's description of the execution was deemed unprintable due to its graphic nature. Duffy told the media, "Maybe it would help if you could [print what I said]. It would do the people good to know exactly how their mandate was carried out. Every juror who ever voted for the death penalty, every judge who ever pronounced sentence, every legislator who helped pass the law that made it necessary for us all to go through this ordeal would have been with me today. I have nothing more to say except that this was the most terrible experience of my life and I pray to God I shall never have to repeat it."
