On August 23rd, 1889, four men paid the death penalty, the largest number ever hanged on one occasion. They were executed one after the other in rapid succession. Their names were Ferdinand Caroline, Patrick Packingham, James Nolan and Jack Lewis. Hangman Atkinson was on hand, and it is said performed his duties with neatness and dispatch!
These Tombs hangings furnished a favorite pastime for the rougher element of the lower East Side, including Mulberry Bend and Chinatown. “How did the bloke take it?” was a common expression from one who had not the pleasure of being a spectator. The reply usually given was, “It was tame,” or “He was game,” or “I could do much better myself.”
The execution of these men was the talk of the city for weeks beforehand. And although desperate efforts were made to save them, they failed, as the Governor refused to interfere with the sentence of the law.
The four men after being taken from their cells on “Murderer’s Row,” were lined up in the Prison yard beside their spiritual advisers. The first toward the gallows was Ferd. Caroline. As he was pinioned by the sheriff’s men one could hear from the adjacent building crumbs of comfort for poor Ferd, who was rather sad that morning. As he stood on the scaffold some one cried, “Brace up Ferd, be a man.” After him came Patrick Packingham, who was of a rather melancholy disposition and who had to be helped on the scaffold. “Paddy,” said one of his companions, “Cheer up, we’re coming after you.” Then came “Jimmie” Nolan and Jack Lewis, jollying each other in the course of their preparation for death.
The last man who had the “honor” of being hanged in the yard of the Tombs Prison was Harry Carlton, better known as “Handsome Harry,” which took place December 5th, 1889. Carlton was said to be a daring criminal, and had an exceedingly unsavory and nervy record for fifteen years previous to his death. He was convicted of the murder of Policeman James Brennan, whom he shot on the night of October 26th, 1888, in Fifty-ninth Street near Second Avenue. On the morning of his execution, when they awoke him out of a sound sleep, he asked the time of day. When they informed him it was five o’clock, he replied, “Great Scott, my time is getting short.”
Carlton’s father came to the Tombs that morning and begged Warden Osborne to permit him to see his son pay the penalty of the law, but the Warden denied his request. Shortly after seven, Carlton heard the Death Warrant read. Soon after he was led to the scaffold, where Hangman Atkinson adjusted the rope and put the black cape over his face, and at seven twenty-nine a. m. the drop fell and he was launched into eternity. In five minutes afterwards his lifeless body dangled on the scaffold. At nine-thirty a hearse drove into the yard and his body was put in a casket and taken to the cemetery, followed by another carriage, in which were Carlton’s wife and child.
Up till last hanging in 1889, murder, riot and rowdyism were never more common, showing clearly that the Tombs’ execution had no deterrent effect whatever on the criminal classes of the city, but the opposite. Murder went on just the same. From the time when Colt killed Adams in August, 1841, till the present, the Tombs has not been without a score of homicidal inmates and many of them of good standing in the comunity. Carlyle Harris, Dr. Buchanan, Dr. Kennedy, Dr. Meyer, Albert T. Patrick, Harry K. Thaw and many others came from good families.
The following list of criminals executed from 1838 to 1889 is taken from the official records of the Tombs:
| Patrick Russell | December 8th, 1841 |
| James Eger | May 9th, 1845 |
| Charles Thomas | November 20th, 1846 |
| Matthew Wood | June 2nd, 1849 |
| Benson & Douglass | July 25th, 1851 |
| Aaron Stokey | September 19th, 1851 |
| Otto Grunsig | February 27th, 1852 |
| Patrick Fitzgerald | April 19th, 1853 |
| William Saul | January 28th, 1853 |
| Nicholas Howlett | January 28th, 1853 |
| Joseph Clark | February 11th, 1853 |
| James L. Hoarr | January 27th, 1854 |
| John Dorsey | July 17th, 1857 |
| James Rodgers | November 12th, 1858 |
| James Stevens | February 6th, 1860 |
| John Crimmens | March 30th, 1860 |
| Albert Hicks, alias Johnson | July 30th, 1860 |
| Nathan Gordon | February 21st, 1862 |
| William Hawkins | June 27th, 1862 |
| Bernard Friery | August 17th, 1866 |
| Frank Ferris | October 19th, 1866 |
| George Wagner | March 1st, 1867 |
| Jerry O’Brien | August 2nd, 1867 |
| John Reynolds | April 8th, 1870 |
| John Real | August 5th, 1870 |
| John Thomas | March 10th, 1871 |
| William Foster | March 21st, 1873 |
| Michael Nixon | May 16th, 1873 |
| William Thompson | December 17th, 1875 |
| William Ellis | December 17th, 1875 |
| Charles Weston | December 17th, 1875 |
| John R. Dolan | April 21st, 1876 |
| Chastian Cox | July 16th, 1880 |
| Pietro Balbo | August 6th, 1880 |
| William Sindrain | April 21st, 1882 |
| August D. Leighton | May 19th, 1882 |
| Michael McGloin | March 9th, 1883 |
| Pasquale Majone | March 9th, 1883 |
| Edward Hovey | October 19th, 1883 |
| Miguiel Chacon | July 9th, 1886 |
| Peter Smith | May 5th, 1887 |
| Daniel Driscoll | January 23rd, 1888 |
| Daniel Lyons | August 21st, 1888 |
| Ferdinand Caroline | August 23rd, 1889 |
| Patrick Packingham | August 23rd, 1889 |
| James Nolan | August 23rd, 1889 |
| Jack Lewis | August 23rd, 1889 |
| Harry Carlton | December 5th, 1889 |
