Ives was escorted to the gallows with the noose tightened around his neck. A guard pulled a lever that sent a weight hurtling down a chute. The weight was supposed to pull the rope taut and the prisoner would break his neck as he fell through the trap. But Ives was too light. As the weight fell he went hurtling toward the ceiling. The rope jumped off the pulley and Ives fell to the floor gasping for breath. "You can't hang a man twice," he said. But they did. According to one witness it took three attempts. Ives was strangled for 23 minutes before he was pronounced dead.