William Wilson’s Hanging

William Wilson killed Robert Casey (in photo) in August 1875 in Lincoln, NM in an incident that preceded the power war that was about to come.  Wilson was sentenced to die that December, but it went bad.

The hanging seemed to go fine.  The trap was opened, Wilson dropped and seemingly died of a broken neck—and was placed in his coffin.  But then somebody realized he was still breathing.  After much discussion, authorities put a rope around Wilson’s neck and hauled him up to slowly strangle to death, finishing the job they’d botched earlier