This week in 1871

“Look at me! I no cry; I no woman; I man. I die brave!”

— John Boyer, convicted of murder, hanging, Wyoming.
Executed April 21, 1871

Son of a Frenchman and a Sioux Indian woman, Boyer was convicted of murdering two people he suspected of raping his mother and sister. At one point he escaped by simply walking out past a prison guard, but he was again arrested. Boyer’s case drew much media attention as the first legal execution in Wyoming’s history.