EXECUTIONS/ PEORIA

NORMAN  V.  KELLY

 

1851:      THOMAS   BROWN   GEORGE  WILLIAMS

Tom   Tit  Jordan     Waylaid  Harvey Hewitt

1850 On Spring street;    Sheriff    posse…ALIVE

Riot  Forgot Rope…Killed a man from Canton

TRIAL   Hanging   January 15   1851    Sanford and Second street  6,200    saw  15,000 Prairie…Pauper’s Grave.

 

1872:    HENRY  McNULTY:    SHOEMAKER  FROM Chillicothe…He liked to sneak down to Peoria for a little boozing and gambling.  Trouble with wife   also used to beat her…restraining orders.

So when his wife was found dead on the floor in her bedroom they arrested  HENRY…Broken Ribs, damaged Spleen. Trial   GUILTY..  December  13, 1872.

Build Gallows on 3^rd. Floor…and hanged him…he talked 20 minutes.  Got to be a Celebrity…hanged on   2-7-1873,

 

1901:  Ipava in Peoria County…Horrible JOSEPH  HINKLE…Married Artie and treated her like the scum of the earth.  She had him arrested several times and peace bond.  On   9-7-1901  drunk and wild he ran around screaming that this is the ay he would kill his wife….ARTIE…She was hiding over at 209 Pecan when she heard him yelling she ran to an outhouse.

Kicked in the door drug her out by the hair and slashed and stabbed her over 40 times.  He then carried her toward the crowd that had gathered and said.  I killed her for love.

 

Huge trial…GUILTY  sentenced to hang.

N  2-28-1902  with a picture of his child and wife pinned to his chest he was hanged in the old JAIL…3^rd floor.

I am INNOCENT…he said just before they snapped his neck.

 

1903;   Big JOHN  McCrea…Known thief   RR complained of theft and cops stacked it out and caught him on top of a coal car throwing coal down…

DETECTIVE    WILLIAM    ‘SEARCHLIGHT’ 

MURPHY…first to get to him   scuffle  and Murphy was shot 3 times.

Held at City hall   police holding cell   surrounded by huge gang  wanting to hang him.  Turned off all the lights and sunk him aboard a train to Galesburg…huge confrontation.

 

TRIAL in Peoria  Found Guilty  Hanging date was

DECEMBER  11   1903    Peoria County Jail  3^rd Floor…gallows built 50  witnesses invited by sheriff

 

1905:    CHARLES   OTIS  BOTTS  LADIES   MAN..,

Otis was a despicable man   hounded his wife to become a prostitute to support him and was truly a worthless man.

On January 5, 1905 his wife was found dead….strangled   in her bed…huge man hunt…Botts hid out in our red light district until his money ran out and police found him.  The trial was sensational and throughout it all he denied killing his wife…but the jury did not buy it

GUILTY:   HANGING   WAS June 15, 1905….

The fall from the gallows did NOT break his neck so a deputy leaned over and pulled the rope lifting the dangling man from touching the  floor he gagged and convulsed  finally the doctors pronounced him dead….

By then all but one of the 50 witnesses were long gone from the scene.

 

1906;        Edward  Clefford   hey called him River Trash., and the people In Ipava said they never heard a decent word said about him and his family.  They considered them thieves and bandits.  Lived along the river in a junked Houseboat.

On  NOVEMBER  26 1906… He shot his Father and robbed him…police said they had robbed a business and took over $700.00      Clefford headed for Peoria to hide out in the saloons and the whore hosues…He was finally arrested  and found with over $500.00 on him   Tried and Found guilty of murder.

TRIAL   11-23-1906             GUILTY

Hanging…December 20, 1907….

 

Sheriff said  he was the coolest man in the entire place

Reporter said that was the first time anyone said anything NICE   about him

 

1926:     Violent   JOE     ORTEZ…..Mexican Joe…Joe

Was a scary dunk and liked to carry scary knives…he had a job   cut his finger off…paid his hospital bills and fired him.  They gave him $86.00  he bought a few bottles of WHISKEY and a revolver…Joe never worked again.

 

On  3-12-25  he lived in a Mexican Colony we call it Morton Sq…He loved a seventeen year old Mexican girl name INLIANA Martinez…of course she never knew he existed…he heard her talking to a white man named Virgil Hill….He ran to protect her…shot Virgil in the face…Expecting praise  she called Police    He shot her 4 times and killed her.  Virgil lived.

 

TRIAL:  3-23-1925   GUILTY…HANGED  on   4-15-1926…  JOE  was the Last man to ever be executed by Hanging in Peoria County.  In 1946  I saw the third floor of the Jail and the trap door where the men had fallen through…it was a bit scary for kids to see.

 

                             

1935:    GERALD THOMPSON   Killed   MILDRED

HALLMARK.   June   16, 1935   I WROTE A 368 PAGE BOOK ABOUT THIS   I HAVE ABOUT 3 MINUTES TO TELL YOU ABOUT IT.  My Mother In Law   Mildred wonderful girl and Gerald was a ladies man.  One Problem  he was Peoria’s first and ONLY Serial rapist and had 16 of his conquest in his little black book.  He rapped her and killed her by hitting her with his fist    upper cut  broke her neck.

Horrible   fearful   week finally arrested him.

 

Trial was the most sensation murder trial in our history and women actually tore the rear door off the courthouse getting in.     Horribly HOT July  22, 1935. PORNO  Pictures   SENSATIONAL  

GUILTY:   on   July  31, 1935  I went to Supreme court and copied a lot of the testimony including Thompson’s Confession…MOVIE.

Executed in   OLD SMOKEY   Electric chair in Joliet, Il  On OCTOBER  14, 1935.

 

1947…             December 3, 1947   Flavel Feuger…young Navy VET…and Young Navy Vet  HERMAN   WEBER…   1947 Pontiac  Rich  Girlfriend had everything.

Adams St….Aiport..Struggle  .25 Caliber from a lady he raped.

 

HUGE  Massive man hunt  finally found the car…  NORMA  WEBER

Confessed on way back from TEXAS…3 different time all different  He did not do it….all he wanted was the Pontiac.

 

TRIAL;      2-3-1948        GUILTY  He was Executed on

9-16-1948.   That execution was the tenth and final execution in the history of Peoria, Illinois.

 

 

GUILTY>

 

 

He saw her at Knoxville and Pennsylvania talked into car.  Instead of taking her home they ended up in  SPRINGDALE   CEMETERY…