People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 April 1896 — FIVE CUBANS EXECUTED. [ARTICLE]

FIVE CUBANS EXECUTED.

Horrible Exhibition of Bungling Made by the O ft! rials. Havana, April I.— A startling exhibition < ’ bungling in the execution by the garrote of five Cuban prisoners took place Tuesday. The men, classed as "murderers, violators and incendiaries,” belonging to Cayajabo, were recently sentenced to be garroted, and at 7 o’clock in the morning a strong force of infantry was drawn up in the form of a square around the spot where the garrote had been erected. One of the condemned men had confessed bis guilt and affirmed the innocence of all the others, who also protested that they were guiltless. The first man to die took his seat in the chair calmly; the iron collar was fixed about his neck and the cap drawn over his face. Then the executioner undertook to apply the screw, but was so excited that his hand slipped repeatedly, with the result that the victim died by slow strangulation, emitting the while the most distressing cries. The second execution was accomplished with even more distressing awkwardness, the executioner being almost on the verge of collapse as he performed his horrible function. The protests of the officers and priests forced Ruiz, the regular executioner, to undertake the third execution, but he did little better than his assistant had done. The fourth victim of bungling garroters was likewise tortured, and then Ruiz literally fled from his post, leaving his assistant to put to death the fifth of the unfortunate Cubans, who escaped none of the agonizing experiences that had attended the execution of his fellows.