and she stared at him, for about three minutes before leaving. She reportedly half-muttered, "Goodbye," on her way out. James, described as a "negro boy scarcely of legal age," and who had no money to appeal his sentence, was hanged in the Sangamon County Jail on October 23, 1908, at 10:30 a.m. He was hanged on the city's old gallows, unused since 1898, but refurbished specifically for his death. Nearly 150 spectators witnessed the hanging, including eight sheriffs from nearby counties who were invited as guests of Sheriff Werner. Only two black people were present for James' hanging – James' lawyer and his spiritual adviser. Before he was hanged, Sheriff Werner asked him if he had anything to say. He responded, "No sir." Two minutes later, Sheriff's Deputy, Fred Long, sprung the trap. It took 11 minutes for James to die. When his body was taken down, the noose was so tight around his neck that it could not be loosened by hand, and had to be cut. Thousands waited in line to view the gallows, with many asking for a piece of the hemp, from the rope that hanged James, as a souvenir. Later, seven thousand people waited in line, outside the undertakers' shop, McCabe & Gaa, to see his body on display. The next day, his mother claimed his body, and took it on a train back to Birmingham. Although it was stated by his spiritual advisors – Rev. Doswell, a black minister, and Rev. Brandt, of the Evangelical Lutheran Church – who accompanied him to the scaffold on the morning he was hanged, that James "maintained, to the end, that he had nothing to confess as he knew nothing of what occurred on the night of the crime," he provided a statement, right before he was hanged, that was taken as a confession. It had been provided at the urging of a white religious inmate volunteer, Mary Hickey, who pressured the young man to confess so his soul would not be damned. He allegedly wrote the following statement: Moments after witnessing the hanging, Homer Ballard stated: The day after he was hanged, the Illinois State Journal commented on the importance of James to Springfield: Age and weapon In his last written statement, James wrote that he was 20 years-old. However, a day after he was arrested, the Illinois State Journal reported that James said he was 24-years-old.