What Thugs were like back in 1893 (Corrected)

I tried zooming in as I enjoy old articles... but I can't see nuthin.

It's 2025, nobody has the patience to read that.

Some middle age guy shared this clip with his friends around some horsedroppings near a salon and one guy commented, “cultcha” while the others claimed how great things were 25 years earlier before that damned transcontinental railroad made everyone’s life so connected.

I'll have my butler print this out and use his magnifying glass to let me know what it says

Was he innocent for lack of evidence?

quote:

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Let me know if you’d like a deeper breakdown or transcription of any section.

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I'd actually be interested in the entire article, if you know how to get it.

People back then must have had amazing eyesight.

Sure, here is a full transcription of the article titled “HANGED BY THE NECK” from the Marion-Ledger, Tuesday Evening, March 8, 1892:

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HANGED BY THE NECK.
Frank Wood Swiftly Swung to Death This Morning.
Admitted Just Before His Death That His Sentence Was Just—He Met His Fate Without Flinching.
Execution Was Conducted Quietly in the Jail Yard.
Shock of the Husband’s Crime Drove His Aged Mother Insane.

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Marion, Ohio, March 8. — F. L. Wood, who murdered his wife on the evening of July 24, 1891, paid the penalty of his crime by hanging this morning at 10:43 o’clock.

The drop fell at that hour, and in just fifteen minutes the physicians in attendance pronounced life extinct. The body was taken down and placed in a coffin at 11:15 o’clock and was taken to the home of the mother of the dead man in Green Camp township, for interment.

During the long night prior to the execution, Wood slept but little. Rev. G. W. L. Brown was with him a great part of the time, and in the early morning the condemned man listened to religious services and prayed earnestly and apparently devoutly. He was very quiet and self-possessed, and did not at any time show signs of breaking down.

At 10:15 the sheriff and his deputies entered the cell, and the prisoner was informed that the hour of his death had come. Wood expressed a willingness to go with them, and after bidding the jailer and others in the corridor good-bye, he was led to the gallows in the jail yard. There were less than a score of spectators present, and the arrangements for the execution were perfect in every particular.

At the scaffold, Wood mounted the steps firmly, and was quickly bound and the black cap adjusted. Just before the noose was placed around his neck, he said:

“I have made peace with God and am prepared to go. I know my sentence is just. I forgive everybody and ask everybody to forgive me.”

These were the last words of the man whose domestic infidelity and drunken passion led him to take the life of a confiding and innocent wife. The drop fell at 10:43 and the murderer’s soul was launched into eternity.

The crime for which Wood suffered death was a particularly brutal and unprovoked one. On the evening of July 24, he and his wife were in their rooms on North State street. A quarrel occurred, during which Wood seized a razor and drew it across his wife’s throat, almost severing her head from her body. He then attempted to take his own life by cutting his throat, but failed in the effort.

The murdered woman had lived with Wood less than a year, and was a person of irreproachable character. Her devotion to the man she had married and her patience under provocation and suffering make her memory a touching one to all who knew her.

Wood was arrested immediately after the commission of the crime and was confined in the county jail. His trial came on at the September term of court and lasted several days. The testimony of several witnesses, to whom Wood had made confession, and the testimony of neighbors and friends of the murdered woman, told the tale of Wood’s brutality and confirmed the charge of premeditated murder. The jury was out only a few hours and returned a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree. A motion for a new trial was overruled, and the prisoner was sentenced to be hanged.

During his confinement in jail Wood at first gave little sign of feeling, and his demeanor was stolid and indifferent. As the days passed, however, he softened somewhat, and during the last few weeks he professed religion and seemed to accept his fate as deserved.

Numerous efforts were made to secure a commutation of the sentence to life imprisonment, but the governor refused to interfere, and the law took its course.

Wood was 29 years of age and was a man of fine physique. He had some education and ability, but his habits were bad and his moral character low. He had been married before, but his first wife secured a divorce from him. The second wife, whom he murdered, was well connected and had many friends. Her sad fate excited deep sympathy in this community, and the execution of her murderer is regarded as a just atonement for the cruel wrong inflicted upon her.

The execution was conducted quietly and without sensational features. The public was excluded, and the sheriff and his deputies deserve credit for the manner in which the painful duty was discharged.

One of the saddest incidents connected with the affair is the condition of Wood’s aged mother. The shock of her son’s crime and disgrace, followed by the announcement of his death sentence, affected her mind, and she has been hopelessly insane for several months. She is now confined in the asylum at Columbus, and her case is a peculiarly pitiable one.

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look we've all been pulled over by a black cop by now so let's just say we're even