This week in 1886

“Hurry up, old man, or Clark will want another drink of whisky. If you don’t look out, I may fall through and sue the city for damages.”

— Allen J. Adams, convicted of murder, hanging, Massachusetts.
Executed April 16, 1886

Adams spent time as a whaler, moonshiner, and a prisoner of the Connecticut State Prison before he murdered his boss, Moses B. Dickenson, in 1875 and then disappeared for ten years. He turned up again in Tennessee, where he was convicted for forgery. To avoid the chain gang, he confessed to the murder and returned to Massachusetts for his March 16 hanging. Two days before his sentence, Adams tried to cut his own throat. His execution was postponed for a month while he healed.

The man named Clark was the sheriff.