American executions, and those glimpses of the larger American story attainable through them, have been a prominent feature on this site, from the guy who came over on the Mayflower to the guy who’s about to be a 2012 campaign issue, and all the many martyrs, patriots, traitors, and legends in between.

For all that, these data points each in isolation have never quite given us pause to survey the grand sweep of the American story, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free and all their varied carols.

The posts in these next few days are scarcely that country’s most memorable executions, but they are every inch American, the rack and ruin of gangster deaths for quintessential homo Americani from the 13 colonies to the postwar empire.

• Aug. 30, 1867: Bridget Durgan
• Aug. 31, 1900: William Black
• (On or around) Sep. 1, 1863: An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
• Sep. 2, 1772: Moses Paul
• Sep. 3, 1875: Six at Judge Parker’s Fort Smith
• Sep. 4, 1953: Earle Dennison
• Sep. 5, 1924: Richard Birkes
• Sep. 6, 1811: John Andrews
• Sep. 7, 1768: Isaac Frasier
• Sep. 8, 1999: Mark Gardner and Alan Willett
• Sep. 9, 1861: William Scott, the Sleeping Sentinel (not executed)
• Sep. 10, 1951: Eliseo Mares
• Sep. 11, 1941: Eugene Johnson
• Sep. 12, 1823: Abram Antoine
• Sep. 13, 1916: Mary the elephant
• Sep. 14, 1894: Enoch Davis
• Sep. 15, 1922: Eugene Weeks
• Sep. 16, 1938: Albert Dyer
• Sep. 17, 1912: Bertram Spencer
• Sep. 18, 1755: Mark and Phillis
• Sep. 19, 1902: Fred Hardy
• Sep. 20, 2006: Clarence Hill
• Sep. 21, 2011: Troy Davis
• Sep. 22, 1675: Little John
• Sep. 23, 1921: Jake Martin and Putnam Ponsell
• Sep. 24, 1896: Four in three different New Mexico towns
• Sep. 25, 1991: Warren McCleskey
• Sep. 26, 1778: James Fitzpatrick, aka “Sandy Flash”
• Sep. 27, 1906: Adolph Weber
• Sep. 28, 1832: Lucy Wells
• Sep. 29, 1915: Thomas and Meeks Griffin
• Sep. 30, 1814: Mary Antoine
• Oct. 1, 1903: Willis, Frederick, and Burton van Wormer
• Oct. 2, 1876: Marie Louise Houghton escapes capital murder prosecution
• Oct. 3, 1873: Kintpuash, aka Captain Jack

(cc) image from Beverly & Pack

On this day..

• 1588: St. Margaret Ward, the Pearl of Tyburn
• 1694: Mette Jensdatter, Viborg infanticide
• 1894: Abbe Albert Bruneau
• 2000: Gary Lee Roll, pained
• 1721: Janet Hutchie, repentant infanticide
• 1587: Thomas Conodale, A Sea Faringe man
• 1878: Sevier Lewis, a family affair
• 1535: Guillaume Husson, colporteur
• 1481: Michal Olelkowicz and Iwan Holszanski, Lithuanian princes
• 1867: Bridget Durgan, "hardly human"
• 1996: Ebbisaa Addunyaa, extrajudicially executed
• 1946: Grigory Semenov, anti-Bolshevik
• 1850: Prof. John Webster, for the timeless conflict between donors and academics