Hangings were 'noose'-worthy events in 1920s

On July 30, 1920, Crestview’s only school was dismissed early so students could attend an event across the road at the Okaloosa County Courthouse.

The children joined the crowd of hundreds — or by some accounts, thousands — that had assembled on the courthouse lawn to watch a confessed murderer swing from the gallows.

The town’s weekly newspaper, The Okaloosa News, reported: “The crowds that were present to satisfy a morbid curiosity had their curiosity satisfied. They had seen a human being hanged by the neck until dead, dead, dead.”

The man on the gallows was Robert Blackwell. He had been convicted of the murders of an elderly couple, Bud and Nancy Davis, who were shot to death in their south county home on March 21, 1917, during a robbery attempt.

Blackwell’s brother, William, and another man, Will Boyd, also were convicted of the crime. William died in jail in January 1919 before he could be hanged. Boyd was given a life sentence in neighboring Walton County.

The three went to the Davis home believing the Davises had a large stash of money and with the intent of persuading them to turn over the cash. But things went bad when old man Davis, a Confederate war veteran, reached for his Winchester.

The Blackwell brothers’ trial was the first to result in the death sentence in the still-young Okaloosa County. On the opening day, William Blackwell escaped, forcing a mistrial. While he and his brother were being transported to the Walton County Jail — which was thought to be more secure — William slipped out of his handcuffs and disappeared into the darkness on the outskirts of DeFuniak Springs.

He was recaptured three weeks later in Holt.

The second trial lasted nine days. Okaloosa County Circuit Judge A.G. Campbell decided the sentence, telling each brother, “you will be hanged by your neck until you are dead.”

While awaiting an appeal to the State Supreme Court, the brothers made another daring escape from the Escambia County Jail in Pensacola. This time, they were recaptured within two weeks.

Religious services were conducted for Blackwell on the day before the hanging and again on execution day. Those gathered sang hymns and prayed for the condemned. He was seated in the courtroom, where he shook hands and bid farewell to the people filing by him.

The Okaloosa News stated: “Blackwell addressed his audience for about 20 minutes from the scaffold, confirming the statement he made a week ago confessing the crime.”

The crowd was separated from the scaffold by a wire fence. A black curtain was placed around the lower portion of the scaffold so spectators could not witness the final scene.

Young boys in the crowd were said to have sold cups of water from a galvanized bucket. One enterprising man sold pieces of the hanging rope as souvenirs. Business was reported to have been so brisk he had to buy additional rope and pass it off as the real thing.

After the hanging, Blackwell’s body was placed in a coffin in the courthouse. The same Crestview citizens who had shaken his hand in the morning were viewing his corpse by early afternoon.

One more public hanging took place at the same site in Crestview on September 23, 1921. Two men, Putnam Ponsell and Jacob Benjamin Martin, were led to the gallows for their confessed murder of a man near Deerland, about eight miles east of Crestview.

Justice was indeed speedier in those days. The murder had taken place July 4 of the same year. John F. Tuggle had offered the pair a ride in his Model T car at the Blackwater River in Milton. The pair murdered Tuggle a short distance off what is now U.S. Highway 90 and took his car and personnel belongings.

The local newspaper reported thousands of curious spectators from all over Florida, south Alabama and south Georgia were in Crestview to watch Sheriff P.J. Steele pull the trigger on the gallows, sending the two men to their death. Ponsell gave Sheriff Steele a letter three hours before the execution asking that it not be opened until after the hanging.

The letter was addressed “To Young Mankind, Crestview Florida.” It warned others to learn from their mistakes and urged the people of Crestview to turn to God.