Edward Delhantie: Murder 1st degree

Edward Delhantie was born in 1886 in Missouri.

Inmate: 23422 San Quentin Prison
Rec: 5 Mar 1909
Crime: Felony
Term: 14 Yrs

While serving his sentence he was apart of the prison theater, he sang and acted and did a minstrel show. Two others in the theater group were agitating him, from jealousy over his sing voice according to Edward. He went after them with a shank, injuring one and killing the other.

Inmate: #8305 Folsom Prison

Rec: 14 Apr 1912

Crime: Murder 1st degree

Term: Death

Here's his story I found in a book:

While serving time at San Quentin for criminal assault in Fresno County, Edward Delehante stabbed two fellow convicts in the prison yard. In the breakfast line, Delehante, without warning, stepped out of line and plunged a knife into the side of William Peterson. Next, he stabbed William “St. Louis Fat” Kaufman in the chest. When Kaufman ran, Delehante pursued him and stabbed him in the back until he fell to the ground. Peterson survived his attack, but Kaufman did not. Guard W. J. Duffy found Delehante against the yard wall, still clutching the sharpened file. “You better give me that thing, Ed. You’re apt to get into trouble.” Delehante obliged and Duffy escorted him to his cell. The press reported that Delehante and his victims had been friends until, for some unknown reason, a bitter feud began. The three men had all participated in the annual minstrel and vaudeville performances presented by the San Quentin inmates less than a month earlier. On January 1, 1912, the San Francisco Call reported that “Edward Delehante and his Tar Baby Troubadours” sang “Way Down Mississippi” and performed “characteristic plantation sketches.” The paper also listed Delehante as the director and manager of the show. Guards believed the feud may have stemmed from jealousy over singing parts in the show, although Delehante stated, “Kaufman goaded me until I was insane.” Called the “Black Demon of San Quentin” by the press, a heavily shackled Delehante gave an “ornate and finished address to the judge.” Delehante’s defense team insisted their client had sustained a head injury during a race riot in Joplin, Missouri, causing mental illness. Delehante also claimed his parents and sister died in the 1903 riot. He pleaded insanity. Delehante received a guilty verdict and was sentenced to hang at Folsom prison. He asked the judge to change the execution date to December’s Friday the 13th, in order to be consistent with his back luck in life. The judge denied his request. J. Henderson, editor of the Oakland Tribune, described Delehante’s last evening: “The table in his death cell was piled high with pies, cakes, chickens, candies, and other delicacies, which Ed had asked [for] when Warden Johnston had told him he could have anything he wanted.” Delehante also asked for a phonograph and records of ragtime and instrumental songs. Appearing jovial, Delehante said, “Bring me four niggers to play the banjo! Fetch on your chicken and chocolate cake and bring me a watermelon so big I can hide my head in it.” Delehante asked Johnston if he could dance a jig on the gallows, saying, “This is going to be my execution and the only one I’ve ever had and there ain’t going be no wailing and gnashing of teeth.” The warden, who would see his first execution in the morning, told Delehante to “get a good sleep tonight” and let him know in the morning if he still wanted to dance the jig. By morning, Delehante had changed his mind and told the warden, “No, warden, that wouldn’t be no ways fitting for me to dance at my own funeral.” Instead, according to Henderson, “the big negro placed his feet firmly on the trap and then looked down on [the witnesses] with a smile. He actually laughed and then said: ‘I guess you all is guessing why I laugh. Well, I’m going find out something that you’d give anything to know. I’m goin’ learn what’s in the beyond.’” With that, Delehante went to his death on the Folsom gallows on December 6, 1912.


Moore, April. Folsom's 93: The Lives and Crimes of Folsom Prison's Executed Men (p. 74). Linden Publishing. Kindle Edition. 

This article is about the musicians that were called in for his execution, some party he had.

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/51529755/edward-delehantie/

I tried to do some research on this 1903 riot and I didn't find anything. I searched the newspapers trying to find their deaths and I search the internet for the riot and although Missouri had riots during that time there was nothing about a woman that was burned to death. I am saying it didn't happen, I just didn't find anything. Would be interesting to learn more of this story. His father was born in Missouri according to the 1910 census and his mother was born in Georgia.