On September 19, a young man named Andrew Howard, armed with a handgun and desperate for cash to satisfy his lust for liquor, brutally invaded the home of Ms. Phoebe Hanson, an elderly woman who was alone and utterly vulnerable. After she gave Hanson all the cash she had on hand, he shot her dead in cold blood.
While this story could appear in the contemporary headlines anywhere in America, it transpired in Rochester, New Hampshire 170 years ago in 1843. What makes this story also noteworthy is that three years later, on July 8, 1846, Andrew Howard become the last person to be hanged in Dover, the seat of Strafford County. While state law then dictated that executions be confined to the jail yard and no longer be fodder for public entertainment as they had been for more than a century, newspapers reported that "a mob of several thousands gathered about the prison and threatened to tear down the walls, unless they were allowed to gaze on the spectacle, and that the sherrif felt obliged to yield to their violence so far as to remove the canvas from the top of the wall, thus exposing the platform to view. The body was allowed to hang 35 minutes, and then was conffined and given to his friends." Below, on the left hand column, is Howard's "Confession" from the July 17, 1846 issue of the New Hampshire Statesman, which tells his sad story:
While this story could appear in the contemporary headlines anywhere in America, it transpired in Rochester, New Hampshire 170 years ago in 1843. What makes this story also noteworthy is that three years later, on July 8, 1846, Andrew Howard become the last person to be hanged in Dover, the seat of Strafford County. While state law then dictated that executions be confined to the jail yard and no longer be fodder for public entertainment as they had been for more than a century, newspapers reported that "a mob of several thousands gathered about the prison and threatened to tear down the walls, unless they were allowed to gaze on the spectacle, and that the sherrif felt obliged to yield to their violence so far as to remove the canvas from the top of the wall, thus exposing the platform to view. The body was allowed to hang 35 minutes, and then was conffined and given to his friends." Below, on the left hand column, is Howard's "Confession" from the July 17, 1846 issue of the New Hampshire Statesman, which tells his sad story:
