The last man who was hanged in Illinois was a farmer who set a trap in a melon patch that killed a couple of kids stealing melons.
Terrible Tommy O'Connor, a cop-killer who broke-out of Cook County Jail, would'a been the last man hanged in Illinois if they'd caught him. They kept the gallows waiting for Tommy well into the 1950s.
A little off-topic but we all love a little history.
