The Hanging of Susanna Cox

Berks County was created in 1752 from parts of Philadelphia, Lancaster and Chester counties, making it one of the oldest in the Commonwealth, and-- in spite of its abundance of rolling farmland-- is the ninth most populous in the state. Yet, surprisingly, the number of executions that have taken place in Berks County since its creation is relatively low.

Among those who have died on the gallows are three women, the first of which was Elizabeth Graul, who went to her death on March 10, 1759. The second was Catherine Krebs, who was hanged on December 19, 1767. The last woman to be hanged in Berks County was Susanna Cox, who was executed on June 10, 1809. The crimes for which these young women paid the ultimate price were the same; all three women were found guilty of murdering their illegitimate infant offspring. Very little is known about the history of the first two women, but a considerable amount has been written about Susanna Cox.

Much of what we know today about Susanna comes from the records of Rev. Philip Reinhold Pauli, who, as pastor of the First Reformed Church in Reading, ministered to Susanna during her final days on earth.

Susanna was the young, poor and illiterate house servant of the family of Jacob Gehr, who lived in a large stone farmhouse in Oley Township. For eleven years she served the family faithfully, but her country simplicity made her easy prey for men with less noble intentions. At the age of 24, after having been seduced and subsequently deserted by a lover, she found herself pregnant. In the cluttered mind of Susanna Cox there were only two possible outcomes-- live out the rest of her days as a social pariah, or infanticide. Confounding matters was the fact that Gehr and his wife, the former Esther Snyder, were from two of the oldest and most respected families in the county. Fearful of bringing shame to the household, she chose infanticide.

While the conditions of the crime may have aroused some sympathy for the young woman, any support Susanna may have had vanished when details of the gruesome crime emerged. An examination of the infant's body, which was discovered by Jacob Gehr wedged into a crevice between the stones of the house, revealed that its jaw had been broken, the tongue ripped out, and a handful of straw shoved down its throat.

Nonetheless, Miss Cox pleaded not guilty when she was arraigned before Judge John Spayd on April 7, 1809. Four hours later (the judicial process being much speedier in those days), Susanna was found guilty. The following day she was sentenced.

While the crime committed by the young domestic servant was quite repugnant, so was the prospect of sending a female to the gallows. A petition was presented by Susanna's father, George Cox, to the governor, Simon Snyder, asking him to spare her from execution. Gov. Snyder, who was known for his compassion, gave serious deliberation to the matter. As fate would have it, the governor's opinion was changed on account of another young woman, Mary Meloy, who had also been facing charges of infanticide in Lancaster County (which was the state capital at the time). Although the manner in which Meloy disposed of her child was even more gruesome, the jury decided to acquit, sparking outrage from the citizens of Lancaster County. Perhaps it was in an attempt to appease the masses that Gov. Snyder, on May 9, signed the death warrant calling for the execution of Susanna Cox, which was to be carried out on June 10.

As was the custom at the time, the execution of criminals was open to the public and every county seat had its own "Gallows Hill". In Reading, it was at the head of Washington Street (on the site of present-day City Park), near the base of Mt. Penn. It was a spectacle that would be observed by a crowd of 20,000.

The day before the execution Rev. Pauli administered Holy Communion to the condemned, in the presence of Sheriff George Marx. She was then presented with a white dress, trimmed in black ribbons, which had been sown by family and friends. It was in this dress she would walk forth to her death, and in which she would be buried.

At eleven o'clock the mournful profession, led by a troop of infantry under the command of Captain Lutz, moved forth from the jail and proceeded along Penn Street to Gallows Hill. The soldiers were were followed by the prison officials, the wagon containing the coffin and, lastly, the condemned and her aged spiritual advisor. It was a sweltering hot morning, and somewhere along the ten block route Susanna, leaning on the arm of Rev. Pauli, had to stop at a water pump for one last drink to slake her thirst.

At the gallows Rev. Pauli offered a solemn prayer, after which was sung an old 17th century German hymn:

I, wretched creature, sinner poor,
Stand here before Thy sight.
Oh God, show mercy in this hour,
Judge not with vengeful might.
Take pity, Lord, Thy Pitying God,
Upon my desperate plight.

Susanna then stepped up onto her coffin, atop the wagon which had been placed under the gallows, which were described as being little more than two tall wooden posts and a crossbeam. The masked executioner (whose name has been lost to history), covered Susanna's head and adjusted the noose around her neck. A second later the signal was given, the horse hitched to the wagon was whipped, and the young murderess was swung into eternity, tightly clutching a white handkerchief in her hand.

Her neck was not immediately broken. The hangman, observing Susanna's clutched fist, acted quickly; leaping forward he wrapped his arms around the girl's ankles and gave a yank in order to hasten her death. This drew an alarmed gasp from the crowd, who swarmed the executioner and threated to lynch him from the very same gallows. An angry mob chased the hangman through the streets of Reading, finally catching him at the corner of Sixth and Penn, where he was beaten to within an inch of his life and robbed of the silver he had been paid to carry out the execution.

Whether the hangman's actions were rooted in sympathy or malice is still a matter of debate (Peronally, I'm inclined to believe that he merely wanted to end the young woman's suffering. It's safe to assume that for many of the 20,000 assembled, it was the first time they had witnessed a hanging, and probably weren't aware that the objective was death by broken neck and not death by strangulation, which takes considerably longer).

Susanna Cox swung from the gallows for seventeen minutes before her body was cut down. After a physician pronounced her dead, the remains were turned over to relatives and buried at Thirteen and Marion Streets, just west of Hampden Park.

The hanging of Susanna Cox was such a large spectacle that, in death, she became something of a folk hero. Numerous poems and songs have been written about her, such as the following dirge, which was published in 1881:

Sources:

Reading Times, March 7, 1863.
Reading Times, Feb. 13, 1905.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 19, 1909. 
Gettysburg Times, Sept. 14, 1925.


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