First Legal Hanging in Jasper County

The past couple of weeks, my blog entries have been condensed from chapters in my latest book, Midnight Assassinations and Other Evildoings: A Criminal History of Jasper County, Mo. This week's entry is also condensed from the same book. It concerns John Able's killing of John “Wick” Lane, which actually occurred in McDonald County in 1874, but, after a change of venue, the crime ultimately led to the first legal hanging in Jasper County in February of 1878. Able’s execution was also the only truly public hanging ever held in Jasper County.

Able had married a pretty young girl named Martha Dewitt in Indiana in 1867 when he was a forty-nine-year-old widower and she was just sixteen. They came to Missouri shortly after the marriage and settled in western McDonald County about 1872. Described by one observer as “a fascinating, buxom, plump little creature,” Martha “did not lean to ‘virtue’s side’ but ran off in the opposite direction.” She soon tired of the old man and sought the embrace of younger suitors. 

In the spring of 1874, Martha ran away with a married man from the neighborhood named Neil Dodson, and Able suspected that another young man, John “Wick” Lane, was in on the scheme and knew the whereabouts of the runaway lovers. Lane denied it and offered to help the old man track the pair down, if Able would pay him. Able had no horse of his own; so, he and Lane set off together taking turns riding Lane’s horse. They went northeast into Newton County and beyond but turned up no sign of the missing couple. Upon their return to McDonald County, Ables again grew suspicious of Lane, thinking he had led him on a wild goose chase in order to give Dodson and Martha more time to escape. Able and Lane were seen together in the vicinity of Big Sugar Creek in eastern McDonald County on April 16, and the next day, Lane’s dead body was found not far from where he and Able had been seen together. The dead man had been shot twice, and his revolver was missing from its holster. The position of the body suggested that the killing had been done execution style, in cold blood. At least, that was the theory pursued by the state in subsequent legal proceedings.

Suspicion toward Able mounted when he sold a horse and tried to sell a pistol that were identified as belonging to Lane. Able fled to Indian Territory but was soon captured there by the McDonald County sheriff and brought back to Missouri.
Able was indicted in McDonald County but received a change of venue to Jasper County. Although Able insisted he did not kill Lane, he scarcely cooperated with his court-appointed attorneys, and he was found guilty of first-degree murder at Carthage in March of 1875. The Supreme Court overturned the verdict, but Able was again convicted on retrial in October 1877. Able's lawyers again appealed, but this time the high court sustained the lower court's verdict. 

The execution was set for January 18, 1878, and the evening prior to that date, Able finally gave a full confession, admitting that he had killed Lane claiming he'd done so in self defense when he and the younger man got into a violent argument. The reason he had not admitted the truth from the beginning, he said, was that his lawyer in McDonald County had told him to keep his mouth shut and he thought, even after his case had been moved to Jasper County and he'd been assigned new attorneys, that he should continue to heed that advice. 

His argument with Lane, Able said, resulted when he demanded to know where Martha was and the younger man lied to him. Lane told him another young man named Andy Fleming had taken Martha to Texas, but Able knew that was not true because Fleming was still at home when Able and Lane had set out in search of Able's wife. During the ensuing argument, Lane finally admitted that Dodson had taken Martha to Arkansas and that Fleming was planning to meet her down there. The two men scuffled as the argument grew even more heated, and Able ended up shooting Lane when he made a lunge for a pistol he had dropped during the scuffle.

Jasper County authorities, including the sheriff, tended to believe Able's story, and they tried to intercede with the governor on the condemned man's behalf. A temporary reprieve was granted and the hanging reset for February 15, but the governor ultimately refused to pardon the convicted killer. In the early afternoon of February 15, Able marched onto a scaffold that had been erected west of the jail on the courthouse grounds and dropped to his death before about 8,000 gaping spectators, who'd gathered for the execution as though it were a festive occasion.  

At the time of the hanging, according to a Carthage newspaper, young Martha was living in Indian Territory in an adulterous relationship with Andy Fleming, the man who'd instigated the string of tragic events that led to Able's execution.