John Grayham, Execution, Franklin Parish, LA: 

Submitted by: DeWanna Lindo

March 2001



Source: Diary of ALANSON WOOD MOORE





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4th March, 1898, Friday



Today is the day for the execution of John Grayham, Col'd. by 10 o'clock, the people 

from the country, commenced coming in town and by 12 o'clock there were several hundred. 

Mostly negroes. E.M. King hauled to my house, a load of wood. Misses Della and Amy King, 

cousins, are at my house for dinner. How still and solemn everything seems to be this 

morning and all day! On almost any other occasion with a like number of people in town, 

everything would be noise and commotion. No loud talking; no rapid driving of buggies 

or wagons through the streets. The day is bright, clear and calm, but rather cool.

At 1 o'clock P.M., the Sheriff and the condemned man and the preacher Flood, Col'd. 

and Dr. W.M. Guice ascended the scaffold. After prayer, the Sheriff told the convict 

if he had anything to say he could now say it; he said nothing of importance or 

consequence save that he did not do the deed for which he was now to die. Dr. Guice 

put his hands on him and said, John, tell us the truth now about this matter, 

your time has come. He reasserted his innocence but never told who did the act. 

He frequently said, prior to this time, that when he got on the scaffold he would 

tell who it was that killed Gip Taylor but this he did not do.

I had, all the time, entertained the idea that it was possible that he may not have 

been guilty of the crime; but since he suffered his opportunity to pass without 

disclosing who the guilty party is, as he has said all along that he knew and 

would tell at the proper time, I now entertain less doubt of his guilt than ever 

heretofore. The testimony against him was all circumstantial; nothing direct and 

positive. His failure to make any reasonable statement of his innocence convinces 

me that he had none to make and of his guilt; and that he met his just dessert.

At 1:30 P.M. the Sheriff said, "Goodbye John, may the Lord have mercy on your soul." 

and pulled the lever. The trap door fell and the condemned man was suspended 

in the air and was no more. After 18 minutes, he was cut down, dead. This seemed 

to break the spell of solemnity which was manifested by everybody up to this time, 

and from now till night, drunken men, white and black, and loud talking could be 

seen and heard all over town.