Archive - 1874
Homicide #1874-xx
Date - 1874-08-26*
Victim - Brown, James A. (??)
Accused - Michaud, Joseph (23)
Charge -
A trial was held on June 27th, 1874 for the killing of James A. Brown by Joseph Michaud (23) during a fight.
The trial was held in the Court of Queen's Bench with Judge Wood residing. Michaud was found guilty with no recommendation of mercy by the Judge and sentenced to hang.
An order of court on July 18th upheld the sentence and on August 26th,1874 at the Provincial Gaol in Winnipeg, Joseph Michaud, an artillery gunner, was hanged.
This was the first official execution in the newly formed Province of Manitoba.
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On August 31, 1874, Joseph Michaud became the first person executed in Manitoba, and in fact the entire west, under the jurisdiction of the new Dominion of Canada. Michaud was a 23-year-old gunner with the Dominion Artillery and had killed a man named James Brown when Brown tried to break up a fight between Michaud and another soldier. Michaud was found guilty and sent to the Provincial prison, which was then located in Winnipeg at Main Street and William Avenue. The execution was to be carried out in the prison yard at 8:00 am and invitations to watch the hanging could be obtained from the Sheriff's office located just next door. After the date for the hanging had been established by the officials at the Department of Justice in Ottawa, Winnipeg Police Chief Jack Ingram (appointed as the first Chief of Police in Winnipeg on February 24, 1874) set out to find an executioner. Just before the hanging was to take place, Chief Ingram appointed Robert Hodson to be the executioner. Hodson had approached the Chief and advised him that he had acted as an assistant to the famous English hangman, Calcraft, and was willing to do the job.
According to the Nor'Wester (newspaper) the hanging attracted a very large crowd and went off without a hitch:
"Soon after seven o'clock this morning the black flag was hoisted on the Courthouse telling the people that a human being was about to be ushered into eternity. A very large crowd assembled in rear of the jail to witness the execution, and quite a number were admitted into the courtroom by tickets issued by the Sheriff ...
At the hour of eight o'clock, the time appointed for the execution, the bells of St. Boniface began to toll ... Michaud arrived in the courtroom accompanied by the Sheriff and spiritual advisers ... Before leaving the courtroom to ascend the gallows the hangman securely bound the arms of the prisoner by means of a belt and when Michaud reached the trap he was instructed to kneel ...
The rope was quickly adjusted to the neck of the unfortunate man, and the cap drawn over the face. Then came a horrible pause of a few moments until, at a signal from the Sheriff, a few blows on the bolt by the hangman, Michaud was launched into eternity. Death seems to have been instantaneous, for there was no struggling, there being only a sort of smothered gasp as he descended the drop".
Excerpt from:
Burchill, John. "AT THE END OF THE ROPE".
http://winnipeg.ca/police/history/story27.stm
* Date of execution not crime.