This week in 1854

“Make the time as short as you can, for I am fainting.”

— William H. Lipsey, convicted of murder, hanging, California.
Executed November 3, 1854

Lipsey, a miner by trade, was convicted of stabbing a man in the chest in an argument turned brawl in a “public house serving liquor.” As he left the store, Lipsey expressed pride in his actions, saying while wiping his bloody blade on a post: “I stuck it into him that far and made him quake.” Despite his early bravado, Lipsey was “almost carried” to the gallows.