The Haunted Hangman
True Crime Historian
Richard O Jones
4.4 • 729 Ratings
🗓️ 20 February 2026
⏱️ 61 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Executioner Amos Lunt
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Episode 95 explores a different point of view of capital punishment, a behind the scenes look at the gallows of San Quentin Prison from the hangman’s point of view. One of the minor characters in Episode 84 “The Belle in the Belfry” was the hangman, Amos Lunt, who seemed quite shaken by the event and was reported as “seeing spooks”. That was enough to get me to look a little deeper into Amos Lunt and his descent into madness.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Popular.com |
| 0:03.5 | The Haunted Hangman, San Quentin executioner, Amos Lunt. |
| 0:15.4 | San Quentin Prison, California |
| 0:22.6 | February 3rd, 1894 |
| 0:26.6 | Lee Singh stepped out of the doorway of the hall leading from the death cell to the gallows |
| 0:35.6 | with a smile on his face at 10.40 o'clock yesterday morning. |
| 0:42.0 | Halfway up the scaffold stairway, he pushed in front of the prison chaplain, |
| 0:47.4 | made a deep bow to the dozen or so men who were present to witness or assist at the execution, |
| 0:54.1 | and said, |
| 0:54.9 | All men, goodbye. |
| 0:59.0 | The warden responded with a farewell. |
| 1:02.9 | In less than a minute, the last strap had been tightened, just as the black cap was |
| 1:08.9 | drawn over his head. |
| 1:10.5 | He questioned one of the attendants saying, |
| 1:13.3 | Is that so? |
| 1:14.7 | Muttered, all right, and the trap was sprung. |
| 1:19.8 | Fifteen minutes later, his lifeless body was cut down and placed in a coffin. |
| 1:25.8 | It was just two minutes from the time that the condemned man left |
| 1:29.5 | his cell that the word was given which dropped his form through the trap. Lee Singh spent the |
| 1:37.0 | greater part of Thursday and chatting with the Death Watch, guards Nicholas and Firth. He sang Chinese songs and seemed perfectly indifferent to his |
| 1:47.8 | approaching fate. In the morning, he breakfasted heartily and declared that he had no fear of the gallows. |
| 1:57.1 | Through a crack in his cell, he had watched the hanging of Jose Gabriel some months before, |
... |
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