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Submitted: 7/9/14 • Approved: 8/17/14 • Last Updated: 3/25/18 • R10467-G0-S3
May 28, 1875 - Nov 17, 1922
GPS Coordinates: 33deg 15min 37.39sec N and 96deg 39min 23.80sec W
William Ezell Stepp has the dubious distinction of being only the third and final person executed in Collin County by legal hanging. He was convicted of murdering Hardy Mills in September 1921. He was tried in the old courthouse in McKinney and on Monday, October 17, 1921, a jury found Stepp guilty of murder after three hours of deliberation. This same jury also sentenced him to death. He was hanged at the old Collin County Prison on Friday, November 17, 1922, at 11:23 AM. The county sheriff, Ed Blakeman, acted as the executioner. After August 31, 1923 all executions in Texas were done at the state prison in Huntsville using the electric chair.
Stepp left a wife and six children.
This is an excerpt from the Abliene Daily Reporter (Abliene TX), Vol. 24, No. 161, Ed. 1 Friday, November 17, 1922:
“MCKINNEY, Texas, Nov. 17
Ezell Stepp was executed at 11:23 o’clock today for the murder of Hardy Mills in September 1921. He maintained he was innocent. Stepp was hanged in the county jail here, death being pronounced 12 minutes after the trap was sprung.
When he was placed on the gallows Stepp told Sheriff Ed Blakeman he had nothing to say other than ‘I am innocent.’ The sheriff then sprung the trap.
The hanging was witnessed by about 100 persons, while outside in a heavy rain a large crowd surrounded the jail.
Funeral services for Stepp will be held Sunday. Interment will be in Horn cemetery, six miles northeast (sic) of McKinney.”
Horn Cemetery is actually six miles northwest of McKinney.
Contributed on 7/9/14 by gasirek
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Record #: 10467