Executed
Czech
Czech lived with his wife in a shanty on the Hackensack meadows, where he fished, trapped muskrats and did odd jobs to get by. He was hanged at the county jail on October 3, 1895, in a judicial execution. Two priests, Father Smith and Father Hasel, stayed with him in his final hours, and before receiving communion he said he forgave his wife; Father Smith later arranged to pay for his funeral. According to the account in The Sun, the noose slipped during the drop and he was still alive afterward, and doctors pronounced him dead about twenty minutes later.
Cause of death, as reported: Executed by the state
Reported by: county jail officials conducting the hanging; attending physicians.