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Hanged - Franz Ept

Franz Ept was hung at this place last Friday.  If any one expects us to indulge in any sickly sentimentality over the matter, that person is mistaken.  Ept was a murderer, a brutal murderer, and deserved the death he received.  He extended no mercy when it was craved of him, and he received none, his nature was too low to even ask for it, he had no conception of mercy, he seemed to have no more idea of the finer sensibilities than has a log of wood or piece of ore.  When brought upon the scaffold he was as stoical as an effigy, he appeared to know, but not to care what was to be done with him.  He went through his devotions as if he were a piece of machinery, and stared at the by standers as though it made no difference to him whether only one person or a thousand witnessed the execution.  When he stepped on the trap-door it was with the air, not of a bravado, but of one who setting for the benefit of others, and wanted to give as little trouble as possible.  He moved his head to one side to permit the executioner to adjust the rope properly, and did not even tremble when the black cap was drawn over his face shutting out the world forever.  When the drop left he went down with a thud, they all thought for an instant that the job was done, but God wished otherwise; the wretch who had been so inhuman to others was not to be permitted to die so easy a death, in an instant groans were heard coming from beneath that black cap they kept on and became louder and louder, the pierced the very soul or every man present.  "What is to be done?" was asked, and Sheriff Price, of Tuscarawas county, answered, "we must hang him again," after being suspended two minutes he was drawn up, think of it, drawn up, and placed again upon the scaffold.  As soon as he could work his lower jaw he commenced calling for his priest, "Father Eppinger," he cried, "my God, Father Eppinger, come, come Father Eppinger."  His priest came, and after Ept heard his voice he ceased yelling.  Four minutes were consumed in re-adjusting the noose and then this animal was again placed upon the drop and he stood up as straight, and stiff and stolid as he had done the first time.  The trap was sprung a second time, just six minutes later than the first, and Ept went to meet his God, not a struggle was apparent, his frame did not even quiver.  His neck was dislocated as the work was done.  After hanging 20 minutes he was taken down at 1:30 p.m.  This ends the darkest chapter in the history of Coshocton county since its settlement by the whites.
About seventy persons witnessed the execution and about 2,000 persons were as near the jail as they could get.

-He was found guilty of murdering Abe Wertheimer last November ( Sept 28, 1876 Issue)

Source: Coshocton Age, Oct. 5, 1876

 

THAT JAIL BREAKING

Coshocton Jail, Feb. 12, 1876.

Editor Coshocton Age: - In behalf of truth, I wish through your paper to give the facts of the jail breaking in Coshocton Jail.  The murderer, EPT, succeeded in cutting off and bending two bars so that any ordinary sized man could pass through, and his escape was not thwarted by Sheriff LENNON, but by other prisoners in jail.  The true facts have been suppressed and misrepresented , and when I asked Sheriff LENNON if he would take a statement of facts to the office of the Age, he answered "no," with many high sounding adjectives.  Four prisoners confined here have asked (so far in vain) for the circumstances to be investigated.  We say that EPT, unaided by any other prisoner, cut and bent the bars and was crawling through "to free air and liberty," on Sunday evening last, at six o'clock, and that he was forced back by two prisoners, who straightened back the inside bar and prevented a further effort on his part in that direction.  Sheriff LENNON says that our evidence is not good and would not be believed.  We then say ---look at the circumstances in the case.  After the bars were cut on Saturday, EPT took our pet pigeon and put it alive into the stove, burning it to death while our backs were toward the stove.  This he does not deny.  Why did he do it?  Because we would none of us help him bend the bars which he was unable then to do without our assistance.  He then broke some bars from a radiator, one of which he made a hook on each end by heating it in the stove and placing it between window bars to bend, and using another one for a lever, he hooked one end of his hook around one of the cut bars and with his lever through the other hook he displaced the cut bars easily.  In bending the heated bar he burned his hands badly, which can be seen by examining them.  He also had an accident by which he bruised a finger nail, which will probably come off from the effects of the injury.  He also blistered and bruised his hands by the severe work.  I have asked the Sheriff to examine these injuries, and also to see if others prisoners' hands showed the slightest marks of such work.  If our evidence is not trustworthy, this circumstantial evidence cannot lie.  Sheriff LENNON put two steel traps in the jail for catching rats about two months ago.  These were used by EPT of saws, and manufactured into saws by the aid of an old razor and  a jack-knife, which were handed to him with a bottle of whisky, through the door of the jail.  In view of these circumstances, and the fact that the prisoners have been charged with complicity in the jail breaking, we think a thorough investigation is due to us.  We wish the responsibility to rest where it belongs, but it is cowardly and unjust to accuse us and give us no means of defense.  It will be asked why we did not inform the Sheriff, and we have good reasons to give when the proper time comes.  We prevented the escape of EPT, and for good reason, hereafter to be made known, that was our whole duty.

JOHN NAMELESS, (a prisoner)

Source: Coshocton Age, February 1876

Extracted by: Sandy Payne



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