Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 March 1884 — KICKED THE BUCKET. [ARTICLE]

KICKED THE BUCKET.

The Suicide of Frank Rande, the Most Infamous Desperado of the West. Using His Water Pail for a Scaffold, He Hangs Himself In a Cell at tbe Joliet Penitentiary. • ——- When tbe keeper of the solitary in the Illinois Penitentiary, at Joliet, opened the cell in which the murderous convict, Frank Rande, was confined, on the morning of the 7th inst., he was surprised to find the iron grated door covered with the clothing of Rande. Unlocking the grated door he found some little effort was required to open it, but when he had effected an entrance the cause was plain, for, suspended from the grating by the neck was the lifeless and almost naked body of the noted desperado. He had made the most careful preparations for committing suicide, evidently intending that nothing should prevent him from accomplishing bis purpose. He hud removed all his clothing except his drawers and stockings, and after tearing his undershirt into strips, had made from them and his suspenders a lope strong enough for his purpose. He then fastened his coat and vest to the bars of the door in order |p protect his naked body from the chilly iron, and after laying his trousers on the floor at the bottom of the door, he placed bis water-buoket thereon Jn order to have something on which to stand while fastening the rope at the upper bars of the door. These preparations being complete he hud only to fasten the rope properly around his neck and kick tbe bucket away from him and in a few minutes all was over. When found his body was cold, yet it presented a very natural appearance, for the feet rested on the floor, the hands hung down the sides, the eyes were wide open, and the head was turned a little to one side. A Coroner’s jury was summoned, and it took but a short time for them to resolve upon a verdict of willful suicide by hanging. Aarden McClaugbrey wont to Rande's cell the previous evening and immediately on entering it the conviot greeted him with much exoltemont, and insisted that the Warden should send for ex-Sherlff Hitchcock, of Peoria, and State's Attorney Tunnocliffo, of Galesburg, saying, “When you three are together I will tell you something wonderful.” To this request the Warden made no reply, and Just as he whs leaving the cell Rande begged him to take him out and hang him, **l cannot do that,” replied the Warden, “ but never fear, you will be hanged soon enough.” In a drawer belonging to the work bench of Rande, in the harness-shop among other things was found the cover of an old memorandum book, on the inside of which was written, in the handwriting of the dead desperado, a number of entries, the first of which is dated July 4, 1877, some six months prior to hie arrest. Among the entries were the following, all dated July M, 1877. Mrs. Mary Carroll and several others. Canton. Man and wife and a girl at Saville. A German woman and her »on at the house with a big tree seven or eight miles from Davenport, Chicago, Rock Island A Pacific. Dr. Hamraokwlll testify to my attempt at suicide. I lost five or six quarts of blood. These entries are supposed to refer to crimes committed by the dead assassin. There wore a number of others which could not be deciphered, but in the back of hie dictionary was found tbe following in Hondo's handwriting: I don't want to go to heaven. There ain’t nothing there. I'm going to hell, the big place. 1 ain’t going to heaven. I tell you God brains people—brains 'em. Perhaps that is the reason so many d-—n cranks are so anxious to go to heaven to get brained, and also escape the perils of hard work. A stranger appeared at the prison and offered the Warden SI,OOO for the body of Rande and the cell-door upon which the desperado ended his life. His proposition was not entertained.