THE HANGMAN

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One of the heaviest burdens on any President of the United States (or, at least, it should be one of the heaviest burdens) is the fact that, as Commander-in-Chief, he is called upon on a daily basis to make decisions which are literally life-and-death. Those Presidents with military backgrounds may enter the Oval Office with previous experience with this type of pressure, while a few have even personally taken lives on the battlefield or ordered military executions to take place. Andrew Jackson went one step further by fighting numerous duels prior to achieving the Presidency, including at least one which resulted in the death of his opponent.

There is one President, however, who was an actual executioner. Grover Cleveland, most famous for serving non-consecutive terms as the 22nd and 24th President, was a highly regarded and ambitious lawyer in the early 1870s. He was convinced to run for the Sheriff of Erie County, New York--a job which was a considerable political plum and which would yield over $20,000 (over $350,000 in today's dollars) to the office holder. Cleveland won the post but was not pleased by the fact that the Sheriff's duties included executing the death penalty within the county.

Prior Sheriffs in Erie County had resolved this moral dilemna simply by appointing a Deputy Sheriff to perform the gruesome task. Cleveland believed that the letter of the law as well as his own concept of integrity required that he do the dirty work himself and not pass it on to a subordinate--especially since the Deputy who had previously administered the punishment and his family were being exposed to public mockery. Consequently, Cleveland personally conducted the two hangings which arose during his term of office, even though the process literally made him sick for several days thereafter.

Cleveland's hanging prowess was raised by his detractors later on in his political career in order to paint him as cold-blooded and heartless; however, the issue actually garnered more votes for him from the law-and-order crowd than any he may have lost from those opposed to the death penalty.

For a 1912 New York Times article on Cleveland the Hangman, click here. Oddly, enough, the article fails to discuss Cleveland's second execution, but you can read about his customer at that event here.