Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 81, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 June 1903 — A Double Hanging. [ARTICLE]

A Double Hanging.

In the gloom and silenoe of the of the death chamber of the Northern prison Thursday two murderers paid the penalty imposed by the law for their crimes. Ora Copenhaver, white, the slayer of the wife from'whom he had beoome estranged, and William Jackson, colored, tbs assassin of the man who had befriended him him, were hanged by the neck until dead. Jaokson preceding Copenhaver in the expiation of his crime. It was a night of tension for Warden Reid, but with the perfect operation of the machinery of the law there wae no hitch in the preliminaries of the double execution, and with appareqt stoic indifference, bravery born |of despair, Copenhaver and Jaokson were ready victims for the noose. Copenhaver went to hie doom as though it was a duty he owed the slate, while Jaokson wae bouved up with a religious fervor that gave him strength for tie ordeal. The thud of the trap which swung Jaokson into space was Copenhaver’s death warning, and thus the tragedy of two lives wae consummated.