Bio

Susan Eberhart was born in 1854. Sources describe her as white.

She lived in Webster County, Georgia. She worked as a housekeeper for a married couple there. Contemporary reports name the husband as Ferdinand Spann.

Newspapers of the time described her as young and friendless. She was a teenager in the early 1870s.

Murder Story

On May 4, 1872 Mrs. Spann was strangled in Webster County, Georgia. Susan Eberhart, born in 1854, was later convicted of helping her lover to kill his wife. The case lists one victim.

Susan was arrested six days after the killing. She was tried and sentenced less than a month after the murder. She was executed by hanging in Preston on May 2, 1873.

Contemporary newspapers covered the case. The Atlanta Constitution ran a long story and said she committed adultery and violated the sanctity of marriage. The New York Times noted her execution on May 10, 1873. Murderpedia and CapitalPunishmentUK record the same dates and basic facts.

The Georgia Enterprise reported that Ferdinand Spann had tried before to kill his wife. That paper said Spann dragged Susan from her bed, forced her to witness the killing, and made her partly participate. The Enterprise said citizens and the jury appealed to the governor for mercy, but the appeals were refused.

CapitalPunishmentUK reported that Susan went to the gallows in a new dress and bonnet supplied by the sheriff, with her hair neatly braided. It said she told a crowd of about 700 that she did not mind dying and that she would be better off.

Some sources say Ferdinand Spann had his death sentence commuted. Other reports say both were hung at the same place within three weeks of each other. The accounts in the records differ on that point.