The story behind this stunning photograph of Alexander Anderson and Henry Richards on their Lancaster, Pa., gallows on April 9, 1858 we’re going to outsource to our friend (and occasional guest-blogger) Robert Wilhelm at Murder by Gaslight.

The only official witnesses were the twenty-four jurymen who convicted them, the sheriff, two deputies, two clergymen and state senator Cobb — a proponent of the death penalty who attended all Pennsylvania hangings.

Outside the prison walls, the public found other ways to witness the execution. People in surrounding houses could see inside the prison yard from their roofs. One entrepreneur erected a scaffolding on a hill outside the prison and charged a dollar a seat. Those without a view stood outside the prison walls waiting to cheer when the execution was confirmed.

Why were these men so hated? Read the whole thing at Murder by Gaslight.

On this day..

• 1892: Louis Anastay, "I wish to mount the scaffold"
• 1836: Two English poisoners
• Feast Day of St. Eupsychius, anti-Apostate
• 1859: John Stoefel, the first hanged in Denver
• 1980: Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, Muqtada al-Sadr's father-in-law
• 1812: Jose Antonio Aponte, Cuban revolutionary
• 1912: Tom Miles lynched
• 1945: Johann Georg Elser, dogged assassin
• 1868: The native prisoners of Emperor Tewodros II
• 1747: Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat
• 1740: Charles Drew, parricide
• 1975: Eight South Korean pro-democracy activists