From the site, Yesteryear Once More, "George Brown, Sr., and his sons, George Jr., Andrew and Jesse, along with others, evidently started out as vigilantes in the wild west of Texas, but soon began to abuse the power of justice and went on a murdering rampage over several years before being convicted. George, Jr. and Andrew were eventually hung for their crimes, but not before 14 people were murdered."You can all the newspaper accounts of their bloody crimes here. The family killing spree included an innocent widow. They even crudely beheaded one of their victims and threw his head in a nearby river. The father and oldest brother were charged, but found only guilty of being accomplices, as they were "not present" at the time of the gruesome murders. They were not executed.
Their father was the only member of their family to attend their hangings and he left before the execution began. 7,000 people attended the hangings. It took George only nine minutes to die from his neck being broken. Andrew died after eleven minutes from strangulation. Andrew left behind a wife and two sons. George left behind a wife and one son.
You can read more about the vigilante gang and their crimes and the trial here:
List of Executions by Name In Texas
7 comments:
That's an amazing story! ho cool that you found the stones...I wonder if you have a local paper that would be interested in recounting it.
Ok, that's creepy. I need to purge and go read the three little bears.
How intriguing.
Wow, it's hard to imagine a crowd of 7,000 at a hanging. 9 to 11 minutes sounds like a horribly long time to die.
I agree with Erin - I would want the quick snap = death result, no the waiting around in agony for 11 mins result. Ew. I guess if the'r crimes were as reported then a painless death might have been considered too good for them. To think a hanging was once family entertainment? And they say TV has desensitised us ? Err :P
I find the entire story disturbing. It does get the writing juices flowing, though! However, I am not a support of the death penalty and I find it disturbing the record Texas has. I think it doesn't work as a deterrent against crime. And it's hypocritical, in my opinion.
There is a certain irony to "We think killing is wrong, and to prove it, we're going to kill you."
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