Overview
- Ketchum, linked to the Hole‑in‑the‑Wall gang, was convicted in Clayton for an attempted 1899 train robbery near Folsom after being shot by a conductor and losing his right arm.
- Reports recount that the rope was tested with a 200‑pound sandbag and left in place, contributing to a rigid snap when the trapdoor opened.
- Accounts attribute the decapitation to the rope test, an overly long drop, weight changes in custody, and imbalance from his amputation.
- Sheriff Salome Garcia’s eyewitness description has been widely quoted in the retellings of the April 26, 1901 execution.
- The pieces note the event’s spectacle, the circulation of photos and postcards of the body, and his later reburial in the 1930s at Clayton Cemetery, which still attracts visitors.