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Batavia (Illinois) Chronicle, 14 Dec. 1893:
Hanged for Murder
Harvey Pate and Frank Stiers Die on the Gallows at Danville
Harvey Pate and Frank Stiers were executed at Danville, Ill., for the murder of Henry Helmick. The drop fell without incident. The case was rendered intersting by the decision of the Governor upon the application for a reprieve.
The wanton murder of Henry J. Helmick, a wealthy farmer of Pilot Township, by Harvey Pate, Frank Stiers, Charles Smoot and Eliss McJunkins, upon the high road, while he was driving homne from church with his wife on the evening of Aug. 25, caused intense excitement in an otherwise quiet neighborhood. The four highwaymen stopped the farmer about 9 o'clock in the evening and demanded his money. Helmick refused to surrender his cash. The next instant Harvey Pate, the leader of the quartet, shot the farmer. Stiers almost at the same moment fired his revolver and the farmer fell dead upon the shoulder of his thoroughly freightened wife (Jarusha). Smoot and McJunkins, whose attempt to hold Helmick's horses had failed, viewed the awful work of their companioins with a fear which later caused Smoot to make a confession implicating his companions. The arrest and trial of the young desperadoes quickly followed. Pate and Stiers were sentenced to death and the others sent to prison for life.
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