A train robber suffered a gruesome death after a hanging went horrifically wrong, decapitating him and leaving blood spurting from his neck. Thomas Edward Ketchum, from Texas, was a member of the notorious 'Hole-in-the-Wall' gang during the late 19th century in the US. His criminal career culminated in his capture after a failed train robbery in 1899 near Folsom, New Mexico.
Ketchum was seriously wounded during that robbery after being shot in the arm by the train's conductor, leading to the amputation of his right arm. He was then put on trial in the town of Clayton, convicted of attempted train robbery and sentenced to death by hanging.
On the morning of April 26, 1901, a huge crowd gathered in Clayton for what was billed as a major public event. Behind the scenes, the inexperienced executioners had made a critical mistake. They had tested the rope with a 200-pound sandbag the previous night and left it in place, causing the rope to act like rigid wire when the trapdoor opened. The combination of the overlong rope, Ketchum's weight gain while in jail, and the imbalance caused by the amputation of his arm led to a farcical, horrifying execution.
That afternoon, Ketchum was dropped through the trapdoor - and his head was completely severed from his body. The black hood was the only thing that kept it from rolling away, and executioners had to sew it back on so his corpse could be publicly buried. Sheriff Salome Garcia described the scene: 'Everyone within or without the stockade held their breath, and their hearts gave a great bound of horror when it was seen that his head had been severed from his body by the fall.'
Ketchum's last words were reportedly: 'Dig my grave deep, boys. Let her go boys.' The aftermath of the hanging became infamous, with photographs and postcards printed of the decapitated body. Ketchum remains one of the most extreme examples of a botched execution in the United States.
