John F. Morgan was the last man hanged publicly in West Virginia, on Dec. 16, 1897
John F. Morgan was the last man hanged publicly in West Virginia, on Dec. 16, 1897 John F. Morgan was the last man hanged publicly in West Virginia, on Dec. 16, 1897, after he was convicted of murdering Chloe Greene and two of her three children in the Grass Lick area of Jackson County. The execution drew more than 5,000 spectators, including a New York Sun special reporter assigned to cover the spectacle. The chain of events that led to the hanging began less than six weeks earlier on Nov. 3, 1897. Morgan, an orphan who had lived 5 years with the Greene family and stayed the night with them, was armed that morning with a hatchet. One by one he attacked his victims, delivering fatal blows to Mrs. Greene, Jimmy Greene and Matilda Pfost. Another daughter, Alice Pfost, was attacked but survived. It was she who alerted neighbors to the crime. Morgan was arrested within hours and incarcerated in Ripley. He was indicted on Nov. 4, tried and convicted the following day, and sente...