Executed

Robert Laughlin, Double Murderer, Hanged at Brooksville, Ky

The Trap Was Sprung at 9:29 Saturday Morning and Laughlin Died Almost Instantly - Sent a Half-Dollar to Walling and His Good Will to Jackson

Brooksville, Ky., - via Augusta, Ky., Jan. 11. - The law of Kentucky was fulfilled when Robert Laughlin was hanged Saturday morning.  The trap was spring at 9:29 o'clock.  The crowd which had gathered to see the execution tore down the high board enclosure about the scaffold before Laughlin came from the jail; and there was much excitement.  No one was hurt.  Laughlin died almost instantly.  In 10 minutes Drs. Bradford and Wallin allowed the body to be cut down.  It was placed on a stretcher and taken to the place of burial.

A number of people whose names are well known were present,  Sheriff Jake Plummer wa with a party made up of Jailer Blitzer, of Newport, and Fred Maurer, city turnkey of Covington and George Cook, of Avondale, was with a party from Cincinnati.

Fred Maurer, of Covington, called on Laughlin just before Sheriff Hook appeared with the death warrant.  Laughlin told Maurer that he felt all right and that he had rested well.

Then he reached down into his pocket and pulling out a fifty-cent piece, he said: "Here, Fred, here is the last money I own in this world.  Give it to Walling, and tell him that I hope that it will do him some good."

Sheriff Hook entered Laughlin's cell at 8:30 o'clock, and by the flickering ray of an oil lamp he read his death warrant. Laughlin said nothing.  Just before the last words were spoken, Laughlin's attorney, Judge Donaphin entered at the prisoner's request and accepted a letter that was prepared for him by Laughlin.

It read: "To my lawyer," and then followed Laughlin's thanks and his assurance that he felt all that could be done was done.

Augusta, Ky., Han 11. - The last scene in the Bob Laughlin tragedy was enacted Sunday afternoon when in the presence of a large concourse of people the body of the double murderer was buried in a grave which was dug in the corner of the stable lot.  The relatives made several efforts to bury him in a place in a regular graveyard, but none would have it.  Laughlin's old mother was carried by tender hands from her sick bed to view the body.  The shock, it is thought, will kill her.

from the Hillsboro, Ohio News-Herald, January 14, 1897