Friday 7th of January 1898 (-) — Presumed murderer Jack O’Neil is executed by hanging O'Neil's last words were "I shall meet death like a man and I hope those who see me hanged will live to see the day when it is proved I am innocent - and it will be, some time". A few months later a dying Shellburne Falls soldier fighting the Spaniards in Cuba confessed to the murder. O'Neil became the last man to be executed in Massachussetts.