Thomas "Black Jack" Edward Ketchum

"I'll be in hell before you start breakfast boys," announced Black Jack from the gallows. "Let her rip."

Hard drinking Texas cowboy Tom Ketchum, along with his older brother Sam, drifted into outlawry during the 1890s. Dark-complected and dark-haired Tom was called "Black Jack" after another swarthy gang leader, Black Jack Christian (who was was killed in Arizona in 1897).

The Ketchum Gang included Will Carver and Elzy Lay, outlaws who had ridden with Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch. The gang robbed stores, post offices, stagecoaches, and trains. A merchant was slain in Texas, and Black Jack killed two people in an 1899 Arizona saloon fight.

A few days later the gang was jumped by a posse. Two officers were killed, and Elzy Lay and Sam Ketchum were wounded. Sam soon died of blood poisoning.

Three weeks later, in August 1899, Black Jack single-handedly stopped a train at Folsom, New Mexico, where his gang had previously robbed a train in 1897. He wounded the express messenger and conductor, but the conductor blasted Black Jack with a shotgun. His mutilated arm was amputated, and Black Jack Ketchum was hanged in Clayton, New Mexico, on April 26, 1901. Source: "Best of the West" by Bill O'Neal pages 58-59

At the hanging, when Black Jack fell through the trapdoor, he was decapitated by the trapdoor.

For additional information on Black Jack, see the Wikipedia article.

Quora Who is the least intelligent criminal in history? Why? A good bet would be:

Tom “Black Jack” Ketchum 1862–1901

In the late 1890s an area in Wyoming known as “The Hole in the Wall” was a breeding ground for outlaws. The most dominant being the infamous Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Tom Ketchum and his brother Sam were a close second. Butch Cassidy was himself perhaps the most bewildered by this, but the law was always confused too. Ketchum was not the sharpest knife in the drawer. He may have had some mental illness issues too. When things went wrong Ketchum had a habit of beating himself over the head with his own revolver.

Born in Texas, the brothers were itinerant laborers who eventually robbed a lonely store in New Mexico. This alone was foolish because the store was also a post office and this risked federal attention. They made their way out of the store and apparently didn’t plan to hurt anyone but later they shot and killed the store owner, Levi Hertzstein, who went after them.

Based out of Wyoming for some time, the gang returned to New Mexico when Tom heard of a train carrying a large payroll, the Twin Flyer. Their information was erroneous, there was no payroll, still they took around 500.00 and the train crew put up no fight. Tom thought it went well, so he robbed the same train in the same place 3 more times!

On June 11, a posse was waiting. The incredulous law officers thought that it was a waste of time doubting that the gang would rob the train 4 times. But the gang arrived and a shootout occurred. Most of the gang was captured, two law officers were killed. Tom escaped although he took a bullet in his shoulder.

He was caught and tried in a media circus. Charged with a capital murder and sentenced to hang, Ketchum was confused. Since the law officers were chasing him didn’t he have a right to defend himself?

Sentenced to hang, Ketchum watched the workman build the gallows from the window in his jail cell. At one point he yelled out to them

Very good boys! But why don’t you tear down the stockade so the boys can see a man hang who never killed anyone!

On the day of the hanging, the New York Times reported that Ketchum “leaped” onto the gallows and even helped adjust his own noose. He said:

I’ll be in Hell before you start breakfast!

When the lever was pulled a terrible thing happened. The weights attached to his legs were incorrectly applied causing a shift in weight that caused Ketchums neck to tear from his head.

It is even more tragic because just before he hanged Ketchum yelled “Let’er go!”

Most newspapers at the time however changed his last words to: “Let’er rip!” for purposes of drama.

Ketchum’s brother Sam ran the gang briefly but decided to rob a train from the same line his brother used-of course he met tragedy.

Added 1/9/21 by Janet Milburn