“Good-bye for all my gentlemens, good-bye.  I am going to die like a man; isn’t that so gentlemen?”

— Jose Ramirez, convicted of murder, hanging, California.
Executed December 2, 1887

Fernando Acero, a hulking 225 pound, six-foot tall beast, considered a “quarrelsome, aggressive, vindictive bully…inclined, in his cups, to provoke quarrels” singled out  142 pound Jose Ramirez, who had seduced the woman on whom Acero previously set his sights, Helena Gutierrez. In a saloon confrontation, the men exchanged Harsh words that escalated into roughhousing, and finally bullets. Only Acero who fled the scene, was badly wouneded.  Both men were arrested, and Acero, whose wounds did not seem fatal at the time, made a “dying declaration” six days after the shooting naming Ramirez the killer, and finally did die two days later. Though he had a dedicated lawyer, Ramirez was finally sentenced on October 21, 1887, close to a year after he shot Acero in a Santa Clara County bar.
 
Jose was described as a calm and “peacable” man, which he aptly demonstrated at his death. According to a San Fransisco reporter, the executionee was in “unusually high spirits” that morning, and died as he declared he would, “like a man.”

“No, I am ready at any time; but do not keep me needlessly waiting.”

— John Brown, convicted of treason, hanging, Virginia.
Executed December 2, 1859

Brown, a controversial figure in American history, has been called both a mass murderer and “the man who killed slavery.” Brown, a stalwart abolitionist, was brought to trial for his raid on Harper’s Ferry, a town in what is now West Virginia, then a federal arsenal. His attack had resulted in the deaths of five men.

A popular marching tune of the time was set to lyrics, which included the line “John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave. His soul is marching on!” This song became “John Brown’s Body” and was later adapted into the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” with its popular “Glory, glory, hallelujah” bridge.

“Fellow soldiers: I want you to take warning by me, and seek salvation from the Lord before it is too late.  I am not guilty of the crime which I am condemned to death for.”

— William Lunt, convicted of desertion, firing squad, South Carolina.
Executed December 1, 1862

Lunt had a youthful behavior that one reporter wrote: “led him into every species of childish vice.”  He was convicted, while serving in the Ninth Regiment of Maine Volunteers, stole $250 from a prisoner’s wife and stole the watch of a major of a Florida regiment.  His real charge came when he was convicted of deserting to Confederate forces.  Where it was believed he divulged information that led to the death of one Yankee and the capture of several others.  “Not a blanch of the face nor a tremor of the frame,” the same reporter wrote of Lunt on the day of his death.