This week in 1903

“Ain’t losing your nerve, are you, Joe?”

— Tom Horn, convicted of murder, hanging, Wyoming.
Executed November 20, 1903

Horn’s last words were directed to County Clerk Joseph Cahill, who assisted him to his execution. Horn, sentenced to die for killing a fourteen-year-old boy, even helped adjust the noose in front of the forty witnesses. As a reverend prayed, Horn and another condemned man sang “Keep Your Hand upon the Throttle and Your Eye upon the Rail.” A famous army scout, Indian fighter, and cattle detective, Horn was self-educated and served as a tracker for the party that captured the Apache leader Geronimo. He left behind a 160,000-word history of his career. Horn claimed innocence in the crime for which he went to the gallows.