BANKS COUNTY, GA - NEWSPAPERS  Neal Rylee Hanged 1901

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NEAL RYLEE HANGED, 1901

Neal Rylee paid the penalty of death last Friday
morning for the murder of his wife in September of this
year. He made no statement. He spoke not a word for
hours except when asked a direct question.  His funeral
was preached from the front  of the jail building.  He
sat with his head bowed down, and wept bitterly during
the services.  Repeatedly during the day, and when he
mounted the scaffold, he was asked about the murder of
his wife, and every answer that came was: "It was an
accident.  I was just 'projikin' with the pistol and it
went off."

At 12:40 he was let fall and for one hour he hanged by
the neck when he was pronounced dead by the physicians.
For five minutes he was conscious clasping his hands
and reaching out for something to clasp to.  At 1
o'clock his pulse ceased to beat.  His death was slow
strangulation.  The drop was 4 1/2 feet.  He was 19
years old and weighed about 100 pounds.

Five thousand people were in town that day and with one
exception a more orderly, well-behaved people never
assembled in Homer.


Banks County Journal, October 14, 1901