People who believed the young men innocent appealed to the Governor for a stay. In answer came a telegram instructing that the men be executed.
On a hill was built a gallows. Main street began to brighten with merchants cleaning their windows. One enterprising clothier put on a fire sale. Several tents, containing shooting galleries and baseball games, sprang up along the road to the scaffold.
The fateful day came. From miles around the people flocked to Hillsboro. Ox-carts came lumbering in from the backroads, carriages brought visitors from other towns. People came to the hanging from as far away as Raleigh. A Sunday school picnic was cancelled and the town constable was a nervous wreck trying to keep children out of the busy street. Opportunist merchants did a rushing business until ten o'clock, then they shut their doors as the crowd moved toward Gallows Hill. Only the shooting gallery near the place of execution remained open, catering to a score of nonchalant customers.