The Hanging of an Innocent Man

Thomas Egan (1835-1882)

While no photos of Thomas Egan are known to exist, this engraving of him was made from a sketch drawn by a newspaper reporter during the murder trial. The jury found Egan guilty and a sentence of death by hanging was pronounced by the Minnehaha County District Court. His attorneys then filed an appeal with the Supreme Court of Dakota Territory. Image owner: Siouxland Heritage Museums.

BY WAYNE FANEBUST

Thomas Egan came to America from Ireland in 1855; one of countless thousands of Irish people who sought to escape the hunger and poverty of their native county. His ship landed in Philadelphia, so he could not claim the distinction of arriving at Ellis Island, where the Statue of Liberty famously greeted the incoming huddled masses. Although America was struggling to stay united, tension between the North and South, over the issue of slavery, was threatening to destroy the nation that many foreigners saw as the ideal place to live. The Civil War was on the horizon, but Thomas Egan was not destined to serve in the Union Army, as did thousands of other Irishmen. He did, however, find his way to Wisconsin where he married a widow, Mary Hayden Lyons.

The couple went further west to Dakota Territory, where in 1876, they settled on a homestead in Grand Meadow Township, in the northwestern part of Minnehaha County, north of Hartford. Upon arrival, the family consisted of Thomas and Mary, and their three boys, for Mary’s daughter, Catherine, stayed in Iowa with relatives. The mischievous and sometimes annoying girl rejoined the family in 1879, to live with her step brothers, Sylvester, John and Tommy. Catherine married a neighbor, James Van Horn, a man that Thomas Egan disliked, but to all appearances, the combined families were living the good life. Just then the “Dakota Boom” had settled into Dakota Territory ushering in several years of prosperity.

The summer of 1880 was one of good weather, excellent crops and abundant pasture for livestock. But there was tension and trouble within the Egan family as both Thomas and Mary had spoken to lawyers about a possible divorce. Along with that, Egan’s quarrel with the Van Horns over a tree claim worsened. Then on September 12, 1880, Tommy, his father, and a neighbor, John Ryan, who had been working with Egan and

THE HANGING OF AN INNOCENT MAN

Early day justice in Minnehaha County, Dakota Territory, overlooked innocence when gallows were erected near this site for the hanging of Thomas Egan, a pioneer immigrant farmer from County Tip-perary in Ireland. Egan settled in Dakota in 1876.

Egan was arrested, tried, convicted and hanged for causing the death of his wife, Mary. She was murdered in September. 1880, on the family home-stead farm 20 miles northwest of Sioux Falls, north of Hartford. She was found in the cellar of their sod home, dead from a bloody beating.

The suspicion of neighbors, which promptly spread through the community, centered on Egan. He was immediately taken into custody and placed in jail in Sioux Falls where he remained until the hang-ing. Many years later, a surprising revelation would prove his complete innocence.

Mary Hayden Lyons was a widow with a five year old daughter, Catherine, when she married Egan, in 1866, at Madison, Wisconsin. When the couple later moved, Catherine remained behind with relatives. Three sons, Sylvester, John and Tommy, were born to Thomas and Mary Egan before Cather-ine rejoined the household in Dakota Territory. Soon thereafter, on November 23, 1879, Catherine married a neighbor, James Van Horn. During the trial, James and Catherine Van Horn testified for the prosecution. a fact which angered Egan greatly.

Front THE HANGING OF AN INNOCENT MAN

When the day of sentencing arrived, Territorial Judge Jefferson P. Kidder asked Egan if he had any-thing to say. With an angry scowl he replied “Judge, I have nothing against anybody in the Court, or anybody around the country, except the Van Horns. They betrayed me and may the curse of God be upon them. I can stand it, Sir. The law may not reach the Van Horns, but the curse of God will.”

Catherine Van Horn lived 45 years with the words of her stepfather ringing in her ears. On June 3,1927, on her death bed, at age 65, in Seattle, Washington, she confessed that she had killed her mother. She wrote, “Back in South Dakota in the early ‘80’s I killed my mother. We quarreled and I hit her again and again over the head until she died. No one ever suspected me. My stepfather, Thomas Egan, was hung for the crime. He died vowing his innocence.”

It took three drops from the hangman’s trap door on July 13,1882, to end the life of Thomas Egan. On the first drop, the rope broke and Egan was carried back to the platform. On the second drop, a deputy inadvertently broke Egan’s fall and the hang-ing man was dragged to stand on the trap door a third time. Following the third drop, the official physician declared him dead.

ERECTED IN 1993 BY THE MINNEHAHA COUNTY AND SOUTH DAKOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETIES AND THE MINNEHAHA CENTURY FUND

Marker location: Sioux Falls, 6th St & Main Ave Text author: Robert Huey

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his son that day, discovered Mary’s dead body in the cellar of their prairie home. Her body bore clear signs of blunt force trauma.

The kitchen was a mess, looking as if there had been a struggle and the cellar door in the middle of the kitchen was not properly closed. Blood was found near the opening of the trap door. A buggy was parked next to the house, but there was no smoke coming from the chimney. To every eye, the scene was baffling. Thomas went into the cellar and after finding the body of his wife, he yelled out to Ryan that Mary had been killed.

Catherine and the Van Horn family members were notified of the tragic death of Mary Egan. Suspicion immediately settled in on Thomas Egan, for it was known that his relationship with his wife was quarrelsome and rough. Although one would expect that any murderer would have fled the area, Thomas Egan did not. He was just then thinking about his wife’s funeral and attending to chores. Nevertheless, he was placed under a citizen’s arrest and three men, John Van Horn, Frank Van De Mark, and Elon Warren, loaded up the suspect and at gunpoint, he was taken to Sioux Falls, turned over to Sheriff Joe Dickson, all the while Egan insisting that he was innocent.

Nevertheless, for the next fourteen months, Thomas Egan languished behind bars, vilified by the local press and for all intents and purposes, he was presumed guilty. He had frequent visits from priests, but none from his three sons for the Van Horns would not allow them to see and talk to their dad. Strangely, however, Sheriff Joe Dickson developed a close relationship with his reluctant prisoner. The trial of Thomas Egan for the murder of Mary Egan began in the November 1881 term of court in Sioux Falls. The prosecutor was J. W. Carter, assisted by former district attorney A. M. Flagg and attorney Edward Parliman. Egan was represented by two prominent Sioux Falls attorneys: C. H. Winsor and L. S. Swezey. R. F. Pettigrew was a

The Supreme Court of Dakota Territory

The courtroom of the Supreme Court of Dakota Territory at Yankton was most inauspicious, and the setting, furnishings, and furniture were very simple. Note that there were only three justices, and they had not yet begun to wear black judicial robes. After the appeal was argued, the territorial supreme court denied Egan’s request to overturn his murder conviction. Judge Jefferson P. Kidder

part of the defense team immediately after the arrest of Egan, but he was thereafter elected to represent Dakota Territory in Congress, so he was unable to continue as counsel. Since Pettigrew was a tenacious and tough-minded man, known to be especially aggressive in court, his absence denied Egan the benefit of his service.

The man who presided over the Egan case was Jefferson P. Kidder, a long time Dakota resident. Kidder was one of three justices on the territorial Supreme Court and along with that he was a trial judge under the federal court system. Kidder was a very popular Dakotan, having served two terms as the territorial delegate to Congress. He was intelligent, fair-minded and capable and had a reputation to take a merciful position when it came to sentencing those who were convicted by a jury.

The trial of this non-high profile defendant drew large crowds of people coming from other parts of Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska. This was typical of the times. In an era when the menu of leisure time activities was very limited, the courtroom was a venue that filled the void. If those in attendance were hoping to hear graphic and salacious testimony, they were not disappointed.

From the outset of the trial, the prosecution was in control. Egan’s three sons were allowed to testify although they lied about their ages, and the youngest, Tommy, was only six years old. There was testimony from the three boys that Egan frequently hit Mary, called her names and knocked her down. There was testimony from a witness that Egan intended to rid himself of Mary in favor of a younger woman. William Van Horn produced a hardwood picket pin that he claimed he found near the Egan house. Although he had had it in his possession for 16 months, without turning it over to the authorities, it was admitted into evidence as the probable murder weapon.

The defense team produced a case that lacked professionalism, passion and with no valid points toward innocence. They were clearly out-lawyered by their opponents as they failed to pursue any number of lines of cross examination. Another factor was the defendant was Irish Catholic. For decades preceding the Egan trial, the Irish Catholics in America were vilified, hated and hit with the nastiest forms of discrimination. They were called names, denied employment except for the most menial jobs; their homes and churches were destroyed in the pursuit of prejudicial political gain on a national level. In short, simply being Irish Catholic was a liability.

The jury was given instructions by Judge Kidder and after a short deliberation, he was found “guilty as charged,” even though there

was no direct evidence linking Thomas Egan to the death of his wife. He was sentenced to death by hanging to take place on January 13, 1882. Upon hearing the sentence, Egan told Kidder that he could accept his fate, but in open court, he condemned the Van Horns, saying that they betrayed him and that and warned that the curse of God was upon them. The actual date of the hanging was July 13, 1882, an event not to be missed by people living in the area. Public hangings were wellattended during the frontier era. Whole families stopped what they were doing and made their way to the gallows. It was a time for a reunion of sorts, with picnic lunches and an overnight stay in a local hotel. It was thought that seeing a condemned person die, would have a wholesome effect, a lesson in life so to speak. And so it was when Egan met his fate.

On the morning of his execution, Egan was positioned on the trap door of the scaffold, a noose was placed around his neck and the executioner, Sheriff Dickson, sprung the trap. To the utter shock of those who were there to witness and assist in the hanging, the rope broke and Egan fell to the ground. Four men hurried to the writhing man and hauled him back up to the scaffold. Another rope was procured, but not properly placed on his neck, the trap door was released too soon and again, he dropped to the ground. As it turned out, it took three drops to end the life of Thomas Egan.

The shocking execution of the luckless Irishman became the subject of numerous newspaper articles, all of which explained, in graphic terms, how the hanging was badly bungled. The New York Times, a Westwatching newspaper, called it a “Horrible Hanging,” as if it was sending out a warning to all those who wanted to venture out to the frontier: don’t do it for this could happen to you. A Black Hills newspaper also contributed to the bad publicity that Sioux Falls officials were forced to wear like a badge of infamy.

The first legal execution in Sioux Falls left a host of bad memories that long festered in the minds of men and women. For a family at nearby Canton, Egan’s hanging was the cause of shock and profound sorrow. On July 15, 1882, Mary Richardson, the eleven-year-old daughter of J. D. Richardson overheard her father and others discussing the hanging of Egan, and for some bizarre reason, she went to the barn, put a rope around her and was left suspended with her toes barely touching the dirt. She was later found dead.

Nor was that the only bizarre occurrence in the wake of the shocking death of Thomas Egan. On January 19, 1900, the Daily ArgusLeader printed an article that supported Egan’s consistent claims of innocence. It was reported that Alice Van Horn, sister-in-law to Catherine Van Horn, confessed to having murdered Mary Egan. It was a death bed confession at a hospital in Oregon, set forth in a letter sent to relatives in South Dakota. It resulted in a flurry of questions about Egan’s innocence but little else.

Finally on June 3, 1927, Catherine “Kate” Van Horn made a death bed confession, in a Seattle, Washington, hospital, that she was the actual killer of her mother, explaining in some detail, how the murder was committed. The confession was made to an attending physician, who wrote it down ver batim. Catherine admitted that she had quarreled with her mother and hit her over the head with a pick-pin until she was dead, after which, she dumped the body into the cellar and ran away. The confession has been accepted as genuine, thus providing closure for the family and the community. Thomas Egan died for a crime he did not commit.