This week in 1875

“I’m going to Jesus.”

— Alcee Harris, convicted of murder, hanging, Louisiana.
Executed November 26, 1875

Upon her husband’s discovery of her affair with Tony Hellum, Mrs. Harris and Hellum decided that Mr. Harris needed to be killed. Mrs. Harris pretended to make peace with her husband and offered him a beer to celebrate their reconciliation. However, she had drugged the beer, and as her husband slept, Hellum proceeded to hack the man apart with an ax. The guilty pair both embraced Catholicism right before their executions and professed a belief that they were going straight to heaven. “Jerked to Jesus” read the headline in the Chicago Times—one of the most infamous newspaper headlines in history.