Friday, April 26, 2024
One hundred and thirty years ago, Coryell County witnessed its first legal hanging.
Jim Leeper and Ed Powell, both Coryell County residents at the time, were hanged Sept. 29, 1891, for a robbery and murder they had committed on Dec. 17, 1889.
This tale tells the story of what happened more than a century ago. The account was written by B.Y. Armstrong, editor of The Gatesville Star, and appears in "A History of Coryell County, Texas" by Zelma Scott. Armstrong describes the events leading up to the trial and hanging in great detail.
THE HANGING OF LEEPER, POWELL
"In the latter part of 1889, while returning to Gatesville with a wagon train of supplies, John T. Mathes and W.H.H. Harvey were held up and robbed on the Lampasas Road twelve miles southwest of Gatesville.
John T. Mathes was shot, and Harvey was wounded. Mathes died about thirty-six hours after being shot.
On the day of the crime, Bob Wells met two men near the scene of the crime, and Mr. Harvey sent word to Sheriff Lanham that these men were the guilty parties. Thus when Mr. Wells saw Jim Leeper on the streets of Gatesville on the day following the crime, he was able to point him out to the officers as one of the guilty men.
Leeper was placed under arrest and told officers that Powell was at the Buster place near Turnersville. Sheriff Lanham and a posse left immediately for Turnersville and found Powell in bed suffering from a blow across the head, administered by Mr. Harvey with the butt end of an ox-whip. He too was placed under arrest and thus the guilty men were in custody of the officers within a day of the commission of the crime.
The examining trial was not long. A chain of evidence, which left no doubt in the mind of anyone, had been welded link by link. The men were charged with murder in the first degree.
On February 6, 1890, about two months after the murder, the case was called for trial. J.L. Grain, attorney for the defense, made a motion for continuance to the next term of court. The motion was overruled and Leeper and Powell were arraigned for trial.
The trial did not take long in the presentation of evidence, and it was not long before a jury of twelve men returned a verdict of "We, the jury, find the defendants guilty of first-degree murder and assess their punishment at death."
It was destined that a smooth learned lawyer, much money, and a mother's efforts were to postpone the execution of the sentence. A motion for a new trial was filed and denied and a notice of appeal was given.
The case was appealed to the Court of Criminal Appeals which, on May 24, 1890, reaffirmed the decision of the trial court. A motion for the arrest of judgement was filed in the District Court here in July 1891 and was denied.
Finally, on July 23, 1891, Jim Leeper and Ed Powell stood before Judge C.K. Bell in open court for the purpose of having sentence passed. The room brooded in a still hush, guards were placed over the courtroom to avoid mob action, the calm, serene voice of the judge issued in measured tones into the deathly stillness “Jim Leeper, Ed Powell, is there anything you would like to say before sentence of death is pass upon you?”
There was no response. "I sentence you to be hanged, by the neck, at public execution, on Saturday, August 29, until you are dead."
J.L. Crain, attorney for the defense, Powell's mother, and Leeper’s brother, seeing that methods already used had not stayed the hands of Justice, sought to prevent sentence being executed by resorting to unethical methods.
Albert Leeper, brother of the convicted, was found guilty of attempting to bribe a witness and sent to the penitentiary for two years. Crain circulated rumors affecting the character of two local people and caused a citizen of Copperas Cove, a member of the trial jury, to be arrested.
These things were done to create a doubt in the mind of the Governor of Texas. Mrs. Powell was accused of having attempted to bribe Sheriff Hammack to leave the key in the door of the jail. Every effort was expended in an attempt to free the condemned.
Governor J.S. Hogg was appealed to grant a reprieve and in view of the doubt created by the efforts of Crain he granted this reprieve, delaying the time of the execution to September 29, 1891.
A vast throng gathered in Gatesville on September 29, 1891, one year, ten months and twelve days after the murder of John T. Mathes. It was the last earthly day for the murderers.
Soon after noon the crowd began to center around the old jail. Guards with rifles and shot guns were stationed on the roofs of the buildings adjacent to the twin scaffold which had been specially erected for the occasion. As two o'clock, the hour for the execution drew near, a hush fell on the multitude. There was a nervous, expectant tension.
People who did not want to see the actual hanging were glued in their tracks by some inexplicable force. The condemned men mounted the steps to the scaffold with a guard at either hand. Their hands were tied together. Their feet were bound. Black hoods were drawn over their heads.
The noose was placed around their necks. The last words were said. As the town clock struck the hour of two, Sheriff John Hammack tripped the trap that sent the two murderers to death.
As the bodies swayed in the breeze, the crowd started leaving, regretful that two young men had to die, but convinced that justice had been done. It was several years after the hanging before there was a murder in Coryell County."
According to Zelma Scott’s book, after the men were hanged, Dr. W.B. Ross was called on to pronounce them dead. It was reported that twenty-nine minutes had passed before the first body was declared legally dead and two minutes following, the second body expired. The crowd witnessing the hanging was described as “enormous.”
