Read Practically Perfect for Free Online Page B

justice of Alberta. As soon as he heard the verdict he picked up his pen, and made ready to pass sentence. He told the jurors that he agreed with their decision, and asked Collins if he had anything to say before sentence was passed. The youthful murderer said nothing. Taking his silence as licence to proceed, the judge imposed the only sentence he could — death. Collins was to be taken back to the barracks of the Royal North West Mounted Police, and there he was to be hanged on February 17, 1914.
    No one is sure what Collins was thinking, but shortly after he started his two-and-a-half month wait to die he decided not to eat. His jailors grew increasingly anxious, and the Calgary Herald equated his conduct to that of early twentieth-century feminists. In refusing to take nourishment, it said, the condemned man was following the example of “militant suffragettes.” [5] By January 18, 1914, the condemned prisoner was near death, and jail officials decided to force feed him. That was easier said than done. It took three large guards to subdue the prisoner while a special feeding tube was forced down his throat, and even then there was no guarantee he would gain enough strength to be put to death. Making matters worse, health wise, was that as his execution drew nearer, Collins became more and more nervous, and slept little.
    His mood no doubt darkened even more when carpenters began building his scaffold. The sound of hammering and the chatter of workmen could easily be heard in his cell, and even more noise was created by the crowds attracted to the jail when the top of the gallows rose above the fence surrounding the barracks. The throng milling about grew much larger the morning of the execution. Although Collins said he was prepared to die, until the very end he firmly believed his sentence would be commuted.
    Because the condemned man was so weak, arrangements were made to carry him to the scaffold. When the hangman arrived at his cell shortly before 8:00 a.m., however, that was not necessary. Although in obvious physical distress, Collins walked unaided, and ascended the steps of the gallows on his own. But the journey took all the energy the twenty-two-year-old possessed, and as soon as he reached the top of the scaffold he walked to an armchair already positioned on the trap, and sat. From the moment he was tied to it things went downhill. Collins was hooded and noosed while sitting, and dropped in that position. If events had been left to take their inevitable course, there might have been a different outcome. But the hangman was anxious, and five minutes after Collins was hanged, he cut the prisoner down; the problem was, the unfortunate man was not yet dead. With an unconscious, but obviously living prisoner lying at their feet, officials debated what to do next. If precedent were a guide, the comatose killer should have been carried back up the scaffold, noosed, held over the open space where the trap doors were once closed, and dropped by guards. The debate raged for nearly twenty minutes before fate intervened and Collins died.
    This photo is of a leather strap used to bind the ankles of a condemned prisoner. It took an executioner about two seconds to complete that process. On the only occasion when a prisoner refused to be bound, the executioner used the strap to beat the prisoner into submission.
Author’s photo.
    Members of the coroner’s jury empanelled to confirm that the sentence of the court was carried out were required to witness the execution, and to a man were indignant. Their report makes evident the revulsion they felt.
We find that Jasper Collins died in Calgary on February 17, at the barracks of the R.N.W.M.P., as a result of partial dislocation of the neck and suffocation caused by being hanged by the neck following the sentence of death passed upon the said Jasper Collins in the Supreme Court of Alberta.
We further desire to add that in our opinion the sentence of the court was not carried