Death on the Gallows: The Story of Legal Hangings in New Mexico, 1847-1923 [Paperback]

West C. Gilbreath (Author)

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

West Gilbreath was born and raised in El Paso, Texas. After serving in the United States military, West joined the Dona Ana County Sheriff's Department in Las Cruces, New Mexico. On February 1, 2001, West retired as the Lieutenant of the Criminal Investigations Division to start a second career. He and his family relocated to Denton, Texas where he is a criminal investigator for the University of North Texas Police Department. West is a graduate of the F.B.I. National Academy, and received a Heritage Award for preserving the history of the Dona Ana County Sheriff's Department through the creation of the Historical Museum of Lawmen. Death on the Gallows is his first book.

Product Details

• Paperback: 222 pages
• Publisher: High Lonesome Books (May 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0944383572
• ISBN-13: 978-0944383575
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,280,221 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A scrapbook of newspaper clippings, March 13, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Death on the Gallows: The Story of Legal Hangings in New Mexico, 1847-1923 (Paperback)

"Death on the Gallows" is a great source of information. It has an entry for every legal hanging in New Mexico since the coming of the Americans. Most of the hangings occurred during the long territorial period, 1850-1912. The entries are organized by county. Each entry begins with an introduction by the author, apparently drawn from contemporary newspaper accounts, to judge from the lists of sources. Some of the introduction are bare-bones, others go into detail.

Each entry continues with a quotation from a contemporary newspaper. Often an entire article is reprinted. The papers almost always described the execution itself. Reporters, and presumably their readers, seemed to be very interested in the sheriff's skill with the noose, noting with approval when the neck was broken and death followed quickly, and disapproving when the prisoner strangled to death or (as in the case of Thomas "Black Jack" Ketchum) was decapitated.

As this description makes clear, and the title ought to warn you, this is not a book for the faint of heart. That said, the author's descriptions are never sensational; indeed, they tend to be rather dry and factual, which adds to their value -- the author doesn't get in the way of his material. The contemporary newspaper accounts are more colorful, as was typical of the age, but even they are rarely heartless or gleeful.

All in all, a wonderful concentration of information. The author's prose style is pedestrian and he makes no attempt at synthesis or analysis, but he succeeds admirably in what he set out to do, which is to present the fruits of persistent research in a clear, straightforward format.