Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 123, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 October 1903 — JUSTICE KILLS THREE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

JUSTICE KILLS THREE.

Brothers Electrocuted is New York far Harder of Uncle, An event unasaal if not unprecedented in the history of crime in this country occurred Thursday when the three brothers Van Wormer were executed at Dannemora, N. Y., for the murder of their uncle, Peter Hallenbeck. Willis Van Wormer was the first <h be taken to his doom, and at 11:35 the current had passed through his body. His brother Frederick lay lifeless'six and a half minutes later and Burton Van Wormer was dead just five minutes thereafter. In leas than twenty minutes the law had exacted the punishment for a cruel assassination. Upon several occasions during the last few years members of the same family, aiale and female, have been lynched,

sometimes merely because of their unpopularity or the prejudice of their neighbors against them, but rarely, if ever, has this happened in legal executions* The crime which these three brothers committed was deliberately planned and coolly and cruelly carried out. They had always been wayward and dissipated, and had many'thfles been connected with petty crimes- They had a grudge against this uncl6, who had done much to help them when in trouble, because of some money matters, so they got together and planned his murder, attacked him in his home, all of them emptying their revolv-. ors into him* and nfterwards even boasting of the murder and their accurate marksmanship. The crime was proved beyond any doubt, and it was shown to have been peculiarly atrocious. Not an extenuating circumstance was found either in tbs trial or on thelippOST; U— 7 The Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of the court below. The defense appealed to Gov. Odell for clem- ‘ eney, but it was denied, although he granted two respites.

THE VAN WORMER BROTHERS.