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Clayton, N.M., April 26. – Thomas E. Ketchum, alias “Black Jack,” the notorious outlaw who had terrorized the people of the Southwest for the past fifteen years, was hanged here this afternoon for train robbery. His head was severed from the body by the rope as if by a guillotine. The execution took place inside a stockade built for the occasion. One hundred and fifty witnesses were present. When Ketchum mounted the scaffold at 1:17 P.M. his face was pale, but he showed no fear. A priest stood at his side. The condemned man declined to make a speech. He muttered “Good-bye,” then said, “Please dig my grave very deep,” and as the cap was drawn over his face he shouted “Let her go!”

Ketchum mailed a letter to President McKinley this morning, in which he said:

Standing in the presence of death, where no human aid can reach me, I desire to communicate to you some facts which may perhaps be the means of liberating innocent men. There are now three men in Santa Fe Penitentiary serving sentences for the robbery of the United States Mail at Stein’s Pass, Arizona, in 1807, viz: Leonard Albertson, Walter Huffman, and Bill Waterman, and they are as innocent of the crime as an unborn babe.

The names of the men who committed the crime are Dave Atkins, Ed Bullen, Will Carver, Sam Ketchum, Broncho Bill, and myself. I have given to my attorney in Clayton means by which articles taken in said robbery may be found where we hid them, and also the names of witnesses who live in the vicinity who will testify that myself and gang were in that neighborhood both immediately before and after the robbery. The fact that these men are innocent and are suffering impels me to make this confession.

Ketchum spent the greatest part of the morning in reviewing his past life, during which he had displayed perfect control of himself, frequently referring to his expected death in a violent manner. He cursed the railroad and express companies and the officers who were instrumental in his conviction, the people of New Mexico in general, and their laws. He acknowledged that he planned and led his gang in many robberies accredited to him, including the robbery on the Colorado Southern, near Folsom. He said he knew who killed young Herstein at Liberty, Texas, in 1895, but would give no names, claiming the guilty persons were alive. He also said that he knew who killed A.B. Powers in Tom Green County, Texas, in 1895, and that Bud Upshaw, who was accused, had no knowledge of that crime.

The condemned man declared that he was not the original “Black Jack,” and said that the outlaw was still alive and enjoying his liberty.

“But he was the cause of my becoming an outlaw,” said Ketchum. “Lee Dow, the officer, saw ‘Black Jack” at the Deer Creek tank affair, and in 1897 told me that if I was ever tried for ‘Black Jack’s’ crimes, I would never get free, for I looked too much like him. I thought if I was going to be hanged for another man’s crimes, I might as well have some of my own. The real ‘Black Jack’ got the name because he was very dark, and on the Erie roundup in Arizona there were two Jacks. They called him ‘Black Jack’ to distinguish him from the other.