Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 July 1885 — HIS OWN EXECUTIONER. [ARTICLE]

HIS OWN EXECUTIONER.

John Gaunt, a \Jersey Wife-Murderer, Relieves the fiangman of a Trap-Spring-ing Job. - [New York special.] _ .■ John Gaunt, who stabbed his wife to deatn on Saturday morning, committed suicide to-day in the Jersey City Jail. When committed to the jail he seemed to be ns unconcerned as any of the ordinary prisoners, and he had the free use of tho corridors. On Sunday he ate his, meals with apparent relish, He did not seem to appreciate tho enormity of his crime, and, as he appeared to be in a good frame of mind, the jail officials gave bim no special attention. In the evening, after having read a newspaper, Gaunt closed the door of his cell, and at 8 o’clock, when the night watchman locked him up, he threw himself on *• his cot. At 2 o’clook, in making-his' rounds, the watchman looked into Gaunt’s cell. The prisoner was stretched on his cot and appeared to be sleeping. When the cell was opened this morning Guant’s body ,was found suspended from the ceiling and life was extinct. ’ The murderer had evidently planned the suicide with much deliberation. The cot on which he slept is suspended from the ceiling by a heavy chain. A short rope runs transversely across the cot for the support of the mattress. After untying this rope Gaunt unraveled enough of it to make a slender rope about five feet long. He then fastened the end of it to the chain near the ceiling, and made a running noose on the other end, which he placed around his neck, with the knot under his left ear. He (hen must have thrown all his weight on the rope, and thus strangled himself. One foot touched the floor.