The firing squad who missed the man they were executing

The firing squad who missed the man they were executing

In 1879, the prolonged firing-squad execution of murderer Wallace Wilkerson in Utah made news. Wilkerson was an American stockman who was sentenced to death for the murder of William Baxter. He professed his innocence until his dying day, and chose his fate by firing squad over hanging or decapitation. When the day came, Wilkerson was seated on a chair at a corner of the jail yard about 30 feet away from the shooters and declined to be blindfolded or restrained. He said, "I give you my word... I intend to die like a man, looking my executioners right in the eye." A white three-inch paper target was pinned on Wilkerson's chest over his heart. He yelled, "[A]im for my heart, Marshal!" He drew his shoulders up as he braced for the impact, and pulled the white target pinned to his shirt above his heart. The volley didn't kill him; it just knocked him out of his chair to the ground, screaming “Oh, my God! My God! They have missed!” He bled to death in 27 minutes, prompting the tongue-in-cheek observation by the Ogden Junction newspaper that “the French guillotine never fails.”

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