NEGRO MURDERER REPRIEVED.
Governor Hadley at Last Hour Sends
Thirty-Day Stay of Execution
for Claud Brooks.
Less than twenty-five minutes before the time set for the execution of Claude Brooks, the negro murderer, Marshal Joel Mayes received a telegram from Governor Hadley postponing the hanging until July 10. Mr. Mayes had a telephone conversation with the governor, but insisted on a telegram. The governor said the papers in the case would be sent to Kansas City at once.
Brooks, who was ready for his trip to the scaffold, showed no signs of emotion when told the news. He was taken from the death cell and placed in another part of the jail. The other prisoners, hearing the news, cheered.
The decision of the governor, it is said, was based upon the advice of a relative to whom the governor looks for recommendations in Kansas City criminal cases. This relative advised an inquiry into the sanity of Brooks. The governor sent the reprieve while this relative was at the county jail.
The time set for the hanging of Brooks was 9 o'clock yesterday morning. Brooks murdered Sidney Herndon, burned part of the evidence and made his escape. Now doctors say he is of a "low type of mentality."
