William S. Wilson
William Stubblefield Wilson was hanged in the jail yard at Jonesboro, Illinois, on November 12, 1886, as a judicial execution. Before the drop, he gave a short speech to the people gathered, urging husbands and wives to be faithful to each other and asking people to be charitable to his seven young children. The Mitchell Capital reported that his neck was not broken and that he died of strangulation after about twenty-four minutes hanging. A St. Louis Globe-Democrat dispatch said the execution was private, while another account described him being lifted from his cell to the scaffold.
Cause of death, as reported: Executed by the state
Reported by: Globe-Democrat special dispatch (reporters); Mitchell Capital report from Anna, Illinois (reporters).