A rope made of red and white silk was used to hang Cluverius. The intention was to cut it into pieces to sell as souvenirs after the hanging. Herbert Tobias Ezekiel who witnessed the hanging, wrote that the Sheriff had oiled the rope with sweet oil rather than cold grease which would have facilitated the slipping of the noose and broken Cluverius’s neck. When the trap was sprung the silk rope stretched until Cluverius’s feet were just inches from the ground. The loop extended nearly eighteen inches above his head and it took ten minutes for him to slowly strangle to death.