Tag: capital punishment

The Journey of “Hang Me, Oh Hang Me” From the Scaffold to the Screen

(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

The Killing of “Two Good Men”

On August 23, 1927, Massachusetts executed Ferdinando Nicola Sacco and Bartolemeo Vanzetti. The two admitted anarchists were Italian immigrants executed for the 1921 murder of a person during an armed robbery of a shoe company paymaster.

The Trial and Execution of Sacco and Vanzetti

The fish-peddler and shoemaker had no prior criminal record when they were arrested for the murder. But they were prosecuted during a period of anti-immigrant and anti-radical sentiment, and many aspects of their trial were unfair.

The judge overseeing the proceedings saw the two men as “anarchist bastards,” but others rallied in support of the accused. At the time of their execution, protests were held at many places around the U.S.

Many still believe to this day that the two men were innocent of the crime. Also, there have been recent arguments that only Vanzetti was innocent. There is a Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society that works to keep the case in the public eye, and there is an exhibit about the case at the courthouse in Massachusetts.

Woody Guthrie and “Two Good Men”

Many years after the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti, folk-singer Woody Guthrie found some kinship in the plight of the two men. In the mid-1940s, he worked on a project of several songs about Sacco and Vanzetti to tell their story.

One of the songs in the cycle is “Two Good Men.”

Like Guthrie’s song about “Tom Joad,” which we discussed previously, “Two Good Men” is a story song. “Two Good Men” focuses on the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti. Although the song is not as complete and detailed as “Tom Joad,” it contains many details.

Some of the details in the song include the names of the judge (Webster Thayer) and the people who prosecuted the two men: “I’ll tell you the prosecutors’ names,/ Katsman, Adams, Williams, Kane.”

In addition to the details of the case, in “Two God Men” Guthrie also focuses on connecting the execution to the labor movement of his day:

All you people ought to be like me,
And work like Sacco and Vanzetti;
And every day find some ways to fight
On the union side for workers’ rights.

Supposedly, Guthrie was unsatisfied with his cycle of songs about Sacco and Vanzetti. Eventually, he gave up on the project.

Fortunately Guthrie’s songs about Sacco and Vanzetti were not lost. The founder of Folkway Records Moe Asch, who had commissioned the songs, went ahead and released the unfinished product.

Guthrie was probably right that “Two Good Men” and the other songs did not live up to his best work. I prefer folksinger Charlie King’s song about Sacco and Vanzetti with a similar name, “Two Good Arms.” But Guthrie also was right that we should continue to remember and fight against injustices.

{Woody at 100 is our continuing series celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the birth of American singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie on July 14, 1912. Check out our other posts on Guthrie and the Woody Guthrie Centennial too. }

Photo via public domain.

What do you think of “Two Good Men”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

The Execution of Sacco and Vanzetti: Two Good Arms

The Journey of “Hang Me, Oh Hang Me” From the Scaffold to the Screen

The End of Maryland’s Death Penalty and “Green, Green Grass of Home”

Bono and Glen Hansard: The Auld Triangle

(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

Bono and Glen Hansard: The Auld Triangle

Bono recently joined Glen Hansard, who was taping for Sirius/XM’s The Loft at The Living Room in New York. Together, the U2 frontman and the Once film star sang “The Auld Triangle.” The 1960’s song was written by the brothers Brendan and Dominic Behan for the play The Quare Fellow.

Hansard often plays “The Auld Triangle” on his own and with his band The Frames. Several Irish music artists like The Pogues, The Dubliners, and Dropkick Murphys have played the song. Bob Dylan and the Band also played the song during their recording of “The Basement Tapes” in 1967. Here is the latest take on this Irish classic from Hansard and Bono:

“The Auld Triangle,” which has gone on to a life of its own outside the play, opened the play set in a prison the day that a prisoner is set to be executed. The triangle in the song refers to a metal triangle that was banged to wake the inmates every morning at Mountjoy Prison in Ireland: “And that auld triangle went jingle-jangle / All along the banks of the Royal Canal.”

The play The Quare Fellow, which was loosely made into a 1962 movie with Patrick McGoohan, grapples with a number of social issues, including Ireland’s use of the death penalty at the time. Ireland has since abolished capital punishment.

2014 Bonus Version Update: “The Auld Triangle” appeared in the movie Inside Llewyn Davis (2013). In the movie, the song is performed by The Punch Brothers, Marcus Mumford, and Justin Timberlake. Below is a concert inspired by the movie, featuring The Punch Brothers and Marcus Mumford.

What do you think of the Hansard-Bono duet? Leave your two cents in the comments.

The Journey of “Hang Me, Oh Hang Me” From the Scaffold to the Screen

The End of Maryland’s Death Penalty and “Green, Green Grass of Home”

Connecticut’s Hangman and Johnny Cash’s Last Song

(Some Related Chimesfreedom Posts)

Connecticut’s Hangman and Johnny Cash’s Last Song

With Governor Dannel Malloy’s signature in April 2012, Connecticut became the fifth state in five years to abolish the death penalty. Connecticut makes seventeen states that do not have capital punishment, along with the District of Columbia, as more states are realizing that the death penalty is expensive, unfair, arbitrary, unnecessary, and risks executing the innocent.

Similarly, recently the man who wrote California’s death penalty law and the man who led the drive for that state to adopt capital punishment have changed their position and said that life without parole is a better option than the death penalty. For various reasons, the civilizing trend around the country is leading to more states abolishing the death penalty.

Capital punishment is still used as a political issue, though. Even as Connecticut abolished the death penalty for future cases, it did not overturn the death sentences of the few people currently on death row in the state.

Johnny Cash’s Last Song: “Hangman”

Speaking of executioners, in this video, Marty Stuart tells about his final meeting with Johnny Cash. Stuart recalls how Cash helped him write the song, “Hangman.”

Stuart was inspired to start writing the song after visiting Folsom Prison and seeing where Cash had performed for the inmates. While working on the song, he told Cash about the song, and Cash gave Stuart some help.

As Stuart explains before he performs the song in the video below, it was probably the last song Cash helped write. Four days after they worked on “Hangman,” Cash passed away on September 12, 2003.

“Hangman” later appeared on Stuart’s album, Ghost Train: The Studio B Sessions (2010).

The song begins with the singer talking about killing another man: “I’ve lost count at thirty, and I’ve grown too numb to grieve.” After he tells how alcohol and dope helps him get by, the chorus comes in to reveal the twist. The song is not about a serial killer but the hangman.

Hangman, Hangman,
That’s my stock and trade.
Hangman, Hangman,
Sending bad men to their grave.
But who killed who? I ask myself,
Time and time again.
God have mercy on the soul,
Of this Hangman.

In the video, Stuart tells how Johnny Cash helped him with the chorus and the poetic line, “But who killed who? I ask myself.” The line, and the song evoke the concerns of the Connecticut legislature.

Both the legislature and Gov. Malloy realized that the death penalty is not about what we do to convicted murderers. Capital punishment is about what it does to us when our government kills people already in prison for the rest of their lives. Connecticut is saving the hangman, not the prisoners.

What do you think of “Hangman”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

The End of Maryland’s Death Penalty and “Green, Green Grass of Home”

Oregon’s Death Penalty: 25 Minutes to Go

The Journey of “Hang Me, Oh Hang Me” From the Scaffold to the Screen

The End of Maryland’s Death Penalty and “Green, Green Grass of Home”

(Some Related Chimesfreedom Posts)

Oregon’s Death Penalty: 25 Minutes to Go

Last week, Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber granted a reprieve to a condemned man and announced that he would do the same for any scheduled execution during the remainder of his term in office. Gov. Kitzhaber asked state officials to consider other options besides the death penalty and explained, “I simply cannot participate once again in something that I believe to be morally wrong,” Gov. Kitzhaber further explained that as a licensed physician he had taken an oath to “do no harm.” In making his emotional announcement, Gov. Kitzhaber told how he was haunted by the fact he had allowed Oregon’s only two modern executions.

Whether one agrees with Gov. Kitzhaber or not, one must respect someone who is willing to admit he erred in the past and who takes a moral stand. Gov. Kitzhaber recognized that the trend around the world in recent years has been toward taking a moral stand against state killings when other options, like life in prison, exist. Recognizing there are a number of problems with the American death penalty, Gov. Kitzhaber is putting a moratorium on Oregon executions to allow the state to reconsider whether or not it wishes to continue executing people.

The immediate reprieve stopped the execution of 49-year-old Gary Haugen, who had waived his appeals and wished to be executed. Haugen’s attorney noted that the condemned man, desiring his own execution, would not be happy with the reprieve.

Haugen was within two weeks of his scheduled execution, but Johnny Cash performed a song going further in imagining a condemned man counting down the final 25 minutes before his execution. The song, “25 Minutes to Go,” was written by Shel Silverstein, who also wrote Cash’s hit song, “A Boy Named Sue.” One may hear Silverstein’s sense of humor even in a song like “25 Minutes to Go.” The song’s author may be best known for his children’s books, including The Giving Tree.

In the following video, someone has put together some cool illustrations to go with Johnny Cash’s performance of “25 Minutes to Go” from his famous performance at Folsom Prison on Jan. 13, 1968. (Do you know who did the animation?) Check it out.

You also may watch Cash in another live performance in a video on YouTube. Johnny Cash was another gutsy man like Gov. John Kitzhaber. I miss him.

Bonus Johnny Cash-related Death Penalty News: Johnny’s daughter Roseanne Cash is reuniting with her ex-husband Rodney Crowell for an anti-death penalty concert in Nashville on December 19. John Hiatt will also perform.

What do you think of Johnny Cash’s “25 Minutes to Go”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

Connecticut’s Hangman and Johnny Cash’s Last Song

The Journey of “Hang Me, Oh Hang Me” From the Scaffold to the Screen