Posted on 01/14/2024 10:53:10 AM PST by CheshireTheCat
January 14, 1730, was the date appointed for the public hanging in Philadelphia of James Prouse and James Mitchel for burglary.
Prouse, for his part, admitted the crime but insisted that James Mitchel had nothing to do with it — and Mitchel insisted the same. This ultimately generated considerable support for clemency which the authorities did not seem inclined to act upon.
Naturally the young newspaperman Benjamin Franklin — just turning 24 in January 1730 — was keen to publish this affecting story in his Philadelphia Gazette. Through the magic of public domain, he’s generously allowed us to republish his account from the January 20, 1730 Gazette as our guest post today.
Hyperlinks are, as one may surmise, Executed Today‘s own annotations....
(Excerpt) Read more at executedtoday.com ...
A good lesson to be learned from this tale of woe for young men.
Be careful of the company you keep.
The total theft was for at most 15 shilling. There’s be a lot of dead Amish in our country if that was still the rule.
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