A train bandit met a tragic demise during a botched hanging, which resulted in his decapitation and blood spurting from his neck. Thomas Edward Ketchum, a Texas native, gained infamy as a member of the notorious ‘Hole-in-the-Wall’ gang in the late 19th Century in the US. His criminal activities attracted law enforcement attention across various states, leading to his capture following a failed train heist in 1899 near Folsom, New Mexico.
Injured during the robbery by a gunshot to the arm from the train conductor, Ketchum had his right arm amputated. Subsequently, he faced trial in Clayton, where he was found guilty of attempted train robbery and sentenced to death by hanging.
On April 26, 1901, a large crowd gathered in Clayton for his public execution. However, the inexperienced executioners made a crucial error by leaving a sandbag on the rope overnight, causing it to act rigidly during the hanging. The combination of the wrong rope length, Ketchum’s weight gain in jail, and the imbalance from his amputated arm led to a grotesque and farcical execution.
During the hanging, Ketchum’s head was separated from his body as he dropped through the trapdoor, with his head nearly rolling away if not for the hood. The executioners had to reattach his head to the body for public burial.
Describing the scene, Sheriff Salome Garcia recounted the horror as Ketchum’s head was severed by the fall, and blood gushed from his neck onto the ground. Ketchum’s last words were reported as “Dig my grave deep, boys. Let her go boys.”
The aftermath of the bungled hanging led to the circulation of photographs and postcards depicting the decapitated body, titled “Body of Black Jack after the hanging showing head snapped off.” Ketchum’s case remains a prominent example of a failed execution in US history.
Before his death, Ketchum and his gang, including his brother Sam, attempted a train robbery in Twin Mountain, New Mexico, where Sam was fatally wounded during a confrontation with the police.
Ketchum’s final solo robbery endeavor went awry as he tried to loot a train outside Folsom but ended up stuck due to miscalculations. Shot and arrested, he was subsequently tried and executed.
Despite his criminal notoriety, Ketchum’s remains were later relocated from the original Boothill site to Clayton Cemetery in the 1930s, where visitors are still intrigued by the macabre tale.
