The Reason Wisconsin Abolished Capital Punishment. The John McCaffary Story. Kenosha, Wisconsin

This modest home at the corner of 13th Court and 58th Street in Kenosha changed the history for the state of Wisconsin. Here’s the story…

John McCaffary was born in Ireland in 1820 and moved to the United States in the 1840s. He ended up in Kenosha, Wisconsin where he met and later married Bridget McKean in 1848 who was also was from Ireland.

The couple had a rough marriage, always fighting the neighbors commented. Unfortunately on July 22nd, 1850 their nightly fight got way out of hand. John beat Bridget badly and then drowned her in the backyard cistern.

John was immediately arrested and faced trial in May 1851. The trial took 10 days but the jury only took 90 minutes before delivering a guilty verdict. The penalty was death by hanging with an execution date set for August 21, 1851.

It’s estimated that between two and three thousand people came out to watch the hanging which reportedly took place just south of the intersection of 14th and 67th streets between 14th and the railroad tracks.

At 12:55 pm a rope was put around John’s neck and a hood was placed over his head. At exactly 1pm, Sheriff Allen triggered a spring which pulled McCaffrey into the air. Unfortunately, everyone involved with the execution had no experience with hanging anyone. As the Kenosha History Center states: “This was the first time it had happened to a white man. The military had executed soldiers, and the Federal government had executed Native Americans, but no locality had ever conducted an execution of one of its citizens in Wisconsin”. I’m not going to go into the gory details of the hanging but it took over 20 minutes for John to die when it should have happened immediately.

Because of this “event” two years later the Wisconsin State Assembly led by Assemblyman C. Latham Sholes banned capital punishment. It was signed by Governor Leonard Farwell making this the first and only hanging of a civilian in the State of Wisconsin.

John McCaffrey is buried in an unmarked grave on the west side of the Green Ridge Cemetery in Kenosha. Bridget McKeen McCaffary is buried in St. James Cemetery in Kenosha which adjoins Green Ridge Cemetery.

GPS Location: 42º34’56.0″N 87º49’34.8″W