On this date in 1911, Joseph Christock — a “loose-jawed, low-browed fellow, a brother to the ox, under the fine-spun skin of the human” — was hanged for murder.
The last person executed in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania had, a mere five months before, been a hired farmhand … until he drank himself stupid on cider and proceeded to rape the lady of the farm and murder both her and her 65-year-old mother.
The crime was a straightforward one, even if the prisoner was determined to run out the clock making what reads like a rather self-conscious display of bravado. (He wrote his own death-date into his Bible and coolly showed it off to a reporter; he also attempted suicide several times.)
The definitive blog post on Joseph Christock is this one at Coal Region History Chronicles, but we were drawn to this comment left below it …
my grandfather, charles reigle was a asst. warden at this time and joesph christock made an astrological drawing the night before the hanging which i possess along with a photo of my grandfather,joesph christock and the warden which i also posses.
I took the liberty of following up this comment, and Mr. Ron Young generously sent me copies of the images below, along with the following explanation.
The one is a photo of my grandfather, Charles Riegle, and the other is a drawing cristock made for my grandmother, Sarah Riegle. They,along with my mother, Dora and i don`t remember how many more of 13 children they had were living in a house right outside of the prison walls. The drawing always intrigued me because it looks astological, but could mean a number of things. My grandfather passed aroung 1938, so a lot of the stories, i heard were at a young age.
We don’t have any special research to add on this occasion, but submit them here with great gratitude to Mr. Young, and in the spirit of the uncanny. These small artifacts, from the doomed flesh of a long-dead murderer via two generations of a warden’s family, across a random meeting on the Internet and thence to points unknown.
On this day..
- 1908: Chester Gillette, A Place in the Sun inspiration
- 2007: Six Bangladesh bombers
- 1900: Joseph Hurst
- 1702: Not Nicholas Bayard, anti-Leislerian
- 1781: Diego Corrientes Mateos, Spanish social bandit
- 1555: Robert Ferrar, Bishop of St. David's
- 1875: John Morgan, slasher
- 1883: Emeline Meaker, child abuser, first woman hanged in Vermont
- 2011: Three Philippines drug mules in China
- 1938: Arkadi Berdichevsky, Jon Utley's father
- 1952: Nikos Beloyannis, the man with the carnation
- 1689: Kazimierz Lyszczynski, the first Polish atheist