The Journal Of Commerce
Daily Edition, Kansas City Newspaper Wednesday, May 27, 1863 Execution of Jim Vaughn Yesterday afternoon this somewhat notorious
guerrilla, whose arrest we noticed in yesterday’s paper, was executed in
conformity with the sentence of a military commission. He was removed from the guard house about
four o’clock, and taken by Capt. Sears’ Company of the 12th Kansas Regiment, to
the hill east of the Fort, where the gallows had been erected. We observed him closely as he rode up towards
the gallows, and his countenance, as he looked about upon the green fields and
hills, so soon to be shut out from his gaze forever, wore a very saddened
expression. But as the wagon stopped
and he got out to ascend the scaffold, he evidently nerved himself for the
scene. As soon as he ascended the
scaffold he looked about with an unconcerned, nonchalantic air of bravado and
sat down upon the railing. He was a
fine looking young man, evidently of more than ordinary mind, and with
capabilities to have been an honor to himself and a blessing instead of a curse
to the community. He was about 23 years of age, large and powerfully
built. He talked considerably with the
officers on the platform, but in so low a tone that we could not catch his
words. He took out some trinkets of
various kinds and some money, both Confederate scrip and United States notes
and gave them to the officer to forward to his sisters, who are now confined in
Fort Leavenworth. He then turned and
addressed the crowd in a tone of mingled defiance and bravado. He died, he said, a Southern man, and hoped
he should go to a better world. Then,
the fiend gleaming from his hardened face, he proceeded to threaten vengeance
upon the crowd, saying that some of them would suffer for his death reiterating
that he was a “Southern man.” There was
no gleam of penitence for his life of crime and sin, no relenting in the awful
presence of death, but an air of bitterness and even bloodthirstiness, even while
saying that he hoped to go to a better world.
He desired that his friends should be told how he died, and that his
body should be decently interred. When
he had finished, his arms were pinioned closely, the black cap was drawn over
his face, and he was led upon the trap.
He seemed fearful as he stepped upon it and asked somewhat sharply, “You
are not going to push me off, are
you?” He stood a moment, and said, “This is my last
look,” or words to that effect; “let her slide.” The drop fell, and the hardened criminal passed to the other
world. Life was extinct in fifteen
minutes; at the end of seventeen minutes he was cut down, and his remains
placed in a plain walnut coffin, and interred about a hundred yards from the
gallows. Thus passed away another young man, in the very
opening of his days --- young in years, but old and hardened in crime. Let his fate be a warning to all like
him. He died not the death of the
Confederate soldier, who engaged in open and civilized warfare, falls in the
battle field; but the death of the common murderer and outlaw. As soon as Vaughn was brought to this city, where
he was so well known, he gave up all hope of escape or concealment, and
acknowledged his true character. Though
he was guarded in what he said, yet he talked freely, and the officers who
conversed with him drew out many facts of importance, bearing upon the
movements of the bushwackers. |