Born in Bavaria in 1817, Francis Dick journeyed to America with his mother and four siblings at the age of fourteen. After moving a bit about the country, the family finally settled in Troy, Ohio in 1834. Francis, known as Frank to his friends, took up work as a shoemaker with his older brother, Peter. When Peter unexpectedly died in 1839, Frank took over the shop, but soon gave it up and began working as a butcher for his brother-in-law. Tiring of this as well, he rented a house and entered into the room and board business with his mother. It was not a hotel by any means, the rooming house once being described more in keeping with "a one horse tavern". Frank soon lost confidence in his abilities as a landlord and at the end of a few months decided to accept employment at one of the better hotels in town. This also eventually came to an end, and Frank moved on to Hamilton, Ohio to try his hand at another hotel.
     It was there that a glimpse of Frank’s temper first came to light. It was a rule of the hotel’s stable that no one was allowed to leave with a horse without first being brought around to the office, the reason being that a patron could otherwise mount their horse and ride away without settling their bill. Frank was instructed accordingly, and no employee of the place ever followed orders so willingly.
     One day a customer came and asked for his horse. Frank led him out and the man mounted as if he intended to ride him. Frank tried to stop him and asked for the man to "come down", but the request was ignored. Frank, reaching up, grabbed the man by the throat and pulled him off the horse. The customer cried out the best he could under the circumstances. The hotel manager, overhearing the ruckus, rushed out and stopped Frank, "not, however, until the victim’s natural facilities for respiration had been materially circumscribed," according to one report.
     Shortly thereafter, Frank returned to Troy, working again as a butcher for his brother-in-law, and occasionally visited Dayton.
     It was during one of these trips that he met eighteen-year-old Christina Young. It was in the winter of 1850 that he courted her, and it wasn’t long before his thoughts turned to marriage. Although they were fifteen years apart in age, Christina had supposedly become smitten by Frank’s broad shoulders, sandy hair and light blue eyes. He told his family about his decision and of his plans to propose. They advised him to first inquire about the Young family. The Youngs lived in the then notorious section of Dayton at the south end of Brown Street, known as "Slidertown", now a part of South Park.
     Taking his family’s advice, Frank went to two friends who also knew the Youngs and asked their opinion. He was plainly told that if he married the girl his home would be too hot for him, "a perfect hell". He could not, however, forget Christina and decided to tell her what he had heard in hopes of an explanation. Christina told Dick that the two he had spoken with did not like her and he readily believed her. Later he would explain that he could not help himself. "I looked at her, liked her and took a notion to marry her. I told my folks and they didn’t like it, but I thought I’d marry her anyhow."
     The couple was married on February 25, 1851. Unable to afford a home of their own, it was decided that they should live with Christina’s parents, Augustus Sr. and Catherine Young. In return, Frank helped tend their grinding mill, which was used to make the cornmeal they sold at the downtown market.
     One night, soon after the marriage, Christina’s father didn’t return home. An investigation soon showed that he and Frank had been seen together in the city earlier in the day. Frank claimed that the two of them had later gone their separate ways. It was known that Augustus had been drinking for some time that day. It was eventually believed that the old man had slipped in his drunken state and had fallen into the canal that wound its way through the city. It wasn’t the first time that a drunk had stumbled his way into its murky waters and, unable to climb out, had later been found drowned.
     In the spring of 1851 Frank went into town to catch a boat to Troy, where he was needed on a business matter. He missed his ride, however, and returned home just after dark. Noticing a light from a window as he passed, he looked in and saw that his wife had taken pains not to be lonely while he was away. When he entered the house, the back door was closing after a retreating pair of corduroys and Christina was alone. After what must have been a considerable fight, the couple went to sleep. When Frank woke the following morning, his wife was gone. Returning to the city, Frank searched for Christina, finally discovering her at the market house, where she was talking to a person in the same corduroys he had caught a glimpse of the night before. After following behind a short distance, he finally caught up with the two of them and asked where they were going. "We’re going round here" was Christina’s reply. Unable to stand it any longer, Francis grabbed his wife by the shoulder and proceeded to return her to the market house, "persuading" her along by using a switch. For this he was arrested for assault and battery and fined $20. Although Christina filed for divorce over the incident, by the time the case was to be heard the couple had reconciled.
     During this time of calm their first and only child, Catherine, was born on January 3, 1852. Less than a year passed before the situation of living with his wife’s mother became unbearable to Frank. He persuaded his wife to move into a small tenement. Unfortunately, even though living on their own improved their marriage for awhile, by late summer circumstances brought their troubles to a head yet again.
     One evening Christina attended a dance that was being held by another family they were sharing the house with. After taking a nap, Frank asked her several times to stop and come back to their rooms. She refused. Frank grabbed her and led her back to their section of the house, where he then proceeded to spank her. For this second offense he was put in jail and fined $10.
     At first, when Frank told his mother-in-law, Catherine, that he had been thrown in jail for trying to make his wife come home, she allowed him and his daughter to come live with her. About a week later, however, Christina told a different story and it was she who was allowed into the house and Frank kicked out.
     Frank soon went to work for Mathias Steffin, owner of a livery stable, who gave him permission to temporarily bed under the roof of the stable while he looked for another place to live.
     A terrible idea began to form in Dick’s mind as, night after night, he tossed and turned on his sleepless bed of straw. Although allowed to see his child during the day, Frank was not allowed to enter his mother-in-law’s house during evening hours. Frank began to believe that his wife was seeing other men, and that her mother encouraged the idea. Asking about, he found that the water that ran the mill was low and very little grinding was getting done. He began haunting the house at night like an unhappy ghost, listening in from the cellar and peeking in the windows. It didn’t take long for Frank to come to the conclusion that Christina had begun prostituting herself in order to raise money for her mother. He soon came to the realization that if he were to get his wife and child back he had to remove his mother-in-law’s influence from their lives.
     On the morning of Saturday, August 13, 1853, Catherine Young and her fourteen-year-old son James, started to market to sell some corn meal that had been ground at the mill.
     Later that same morning, Joseph Keifer noticed a driverless horse and wagon coming along the road. He recognized it as belonging to Mrs. Young. The shaft was broken and the lines were dragging. Thinking it unusual that no one was with the wagon, he tied the horse to a post and waited a half-hour for someone to come along and claim it. When no one showed up he went over to the Young’s residence and awoke Catherine’s son, Augustus Jr.
     The two men went down the road towards the market together, searching the woods on their way.
     After a few minutes Joseph heard Augustus cry out.
     "Here’s Jimmy, he’s killed."
     James’ body lay not more than thirty feet from the road. Catherine was found near a fence about forty yards further. The head of the woman, especially the face, had been beaten into a shapeless mass, the skull mashed through in several places, the jaw broken and the teeth knocked out. Both bodies had been dragged away from the road so that they wouldn’t be quickly found.
     Augustus returned to his home and awoke Nicholas Switzler, who had been boarding there for about a week. The two set off and found Frank, who had just left Steffin's stable. Nicholas noticed that Frank’s shirt and pants were wet and dirty, and that he wasn’t wearing a coat or shoes. Augustus asked the two men to go back and watch over the bodies. They willingly did so.
     As they made their way back, Frank began saying to Nicholas that no one person could have committed the murders. When they reached the bodies, Frank refused to look at Catherine, but stated again that it had to have taken more than one person to have murdered them.
     The police were called in to investigate the murders. Suspicion immediately fell on Frank, who was arrested and taken to the county jail. It didn’t take long to confirm, to the police at least, that they had the right man. It seemed that, although Frank had supposedly been asleep that morning, eleven-year-old Catharine Peters claimed she had seen him near the crime scene at dawn, standing by a stream. It appeared to her that he was trying to wash some stains from his boots.
     An examination was held on August 16, 1853 to see if Frank should be charged with the crime of murder.
     Frank’s former employer, Mathias Steffin, was brought before the jury to tell of a conversation he had with the prisoner the day after the murder.
     Mathias got word that Frank wanted to see him at the jail. He did so after dinner.
     The two men spoke of the murders, then Frank asked "Who do you think done it?"
     "I don’t know," answered Mathias.
     Frank claimed it had to have been Anthony Young, a relative of Christina’s, the same man who had charged him with the murder.
     Mathias looked Frank closely in the face and stated "I believe as Tony does."
     The prisoner’s face flushed.
     "I never expected to find you such a man and now believe you are," said Mathias, sadly.
     Frank looked down, then asked if Mathias had his coat.
     "No," he replied, "for the coat looks so bloody, I was afraid if I brought it in, you would be taken as the murderer."
     "Is there much blood on it?"
     "There’s a big spot on the side that looked as if you had tried to wash it out."
     Frank made no reply.
     Mathias then commented that there was a hair on the coat, which he thought belonged to the old woman.
     "Ah," Frank began to reply and then stopped.
     After sitting there in silence for awhile, Frank finally spoke up, and asked that Mathias wash the coat. He refused to do so, and then asked what was to be done with the coat.
     "Put it away somewhere where they can’t find it."
     "Where should I put it?"
     Frank said to take the coat and boots and put them under some logs.
     "They might be found there."
     "Then take them and carry them away after your folks have gone to bed and bury them in a cornfield." After hesitating, Frank added that if Steffin should be called upon in court, he should say nothing about what they had discussed.
     Mathias promised he would not. After a moment, he asked Frank how he came to kill the two - especially the boy. "You ought to have let him slip." He then asked what Frank had killed them with. "I promise I’ll put that tool to rest."
     Frank studied him a little, and began to speak, then stopped.
     "There are a great many people hunting for the weapon," Mathias reminded him.
    "I had your own spade and I killed them with that," Frank said reluctantly, "and I put it in the grass near the stable where the harrows lay. If there is any blood on it, wash it off or put mud on it and then lay it away some safe place."
     Frank also mentioned that a pistol he owned could be found near the roof of the stable. A person then came along and pushed Frank, telling him to go to his supper.
     After finishing his tale of the conversation he had with Frank, Mathias then stated to the court that he had gone home and found the spade in the place Frank had told him to look. Near the roof he found a loaded, single barrel pistol with some rust on it. He also found the coat and the boots as well.
     The defense did not call any witnesses. In the end, Frank was fully committed for trial.  
     The trial began on July 21, 1854 in the Greek Revival style court house on Third and Main, which had been constructed just four years before. Judge Ralph Hart appointed Samuel M. Sullivan and Ernest Jeffards as Frank’s attorneys. James Baggott and Peter Odlin acted as attorneys for the prosecution.
     The defense tried in many ways to prove that another person had committed the crime. The problem came down to motive. If someone had murdered Catherine for money, then why hadn’t she been robbed of the $22 that had been found on her body?
     During cross-examination, Mathias Steffin was accused of being the murderer, and that was why he had lied about the conversation he had had with Frank. This backfired when it was proven that Mathias had remained at the market selling produce from 2 am to 8 am the morning of the murder. Augustus, the son, was also brought up as a suspect. It was pointed out that several people had seen him with blood on his hands and shirt that day. Augustus countered by saying that this had happened while lifting up a cloth that was covering his mother’s face when he found the body.
     When the prosecution spoke of the blood found on Dick’s shirt and coat, this was rebutted by saying that either the blood was planted on the coat as it hung in the stable, or it might have come from some butchering Frank had done while in Troy. The spots on the prisoner’s shirt came from threshing rusty wheat the Monday before the murder. And as for the spade, it was well known that stains from tomatoes on iron will look to be blood. Steffin admitted that he had asked Frank to work in a tomato patch a couple of days before the murder.
     Although the facts against him were overwhelming, Frank never showed any outward signs of being worried and stubbornly held to the belief that he would not be found guilty. He had thought that, because no one had actually seen him commit the double murders, his freedom was assured.
     On August 5, 1854 Frank was proven wrong. He was found guilty of First Degree murder in the death of James Young. Two days later, an immense crowd filled the court room and gallery almost to the point of suffocation, to hear Jeffords give his reasons why Judge Hart should grant a new trial to his client. One of the points made was that during the progress of the trial, one of the jurors had been allowed to visit the bedside of a near relative who was thought to be dying. Although an officer of the court had been sent with the juror with instructions to make sure that no one spoke about the trial that was occurring, Jeffords believed that this should not be allowed.
     Judge Hart, overruling the motion, remarked that it was not practical to keep twelve men together for three weeks, especially during the hot, sickly season of summer. He stated that all that could be done to prevent outside influence had been done, as it always was whenever jurors might be obliged to separate from their fellows during a trial.
     During the sentencing, Judge Hart felt the need to include a a few words of advice to Dick, probably due to his knowledge that the prisoner insisted that he would never hang.
     Francis Dick, there is no probability that the findings of this tribune will be disturbed. You will suffer death. We recommend you to prepare for it. Dismiss every hope. If you should obtain a new trial, these verdicts ought to admonish you that you will be convicted again. Therefore call your thoughts away from earth, and by repentance and prayer, prepare yourself to stand before that judgment seat where you must answer for this crime, unless you secure the forgiveness of Heaven.
     The sentence of the Court is that you be removed hence to the jail of the county from which you came, and that on the second Friday of September, between the hours of 10 o’clock in the forenoon and 4 o’clock in the afternoon, you be hung by the neck until dead.
     Witnesses were amazed to see that, even with this admonishment, Dick’s nerve never failed him for a moment. He seemed to remain steadfast in his belief that he would never be executed.
     On August 18, Ohio Governor William Medill publicly stated that he positively refused to stop Frank’s execution unless it was backed by the names of all the jurors who had brought the verdict against him.
     In desperation, Frank’s mother hired Attorney T. H. Armstrong. He contacted the jurors, asking if they would meet with him to consider signing an application to the Governor to commute Frank’s sentence to life imprisonment. Frank’s argument in favor of this was that the county had spent a lot of money trying his case; if they should hang him it would be a total loss, but if he were sent to the Penitentiary, he might live another 30 years and earn enough to repay the amount that had been expended in convicting him.
     On August 31, 1854 nine of the twelve jurors responded and met with Armstrong to consider the question. Eight refused to interfere with the decision, with only one expressing any willingness to sign the commutation papers.
     Two days before his execution Frank confessed to Sheriff Ebenezer Henderson that he was guilty of the crime for which he was going to be hung. He had been urged to confess by Reverend Henry D. Younker, pastor of the German Catholic Church, who convinced Frank that the sheriff had the right to know that he wasn’t executing an innocent man.
     The next day, Frank was visited by his brother. To him, Frank confessed to yet another murder. He readily admitted to having killed his father-in-law years earlier by shoving him into the canal as they passed. His mother-in-law had supposedly mentioned that her husband was nothing but trouble and ought to be "out of the way". Frank agreed, planned the trip and the murder, knowing that though there might be suspicion, it would not be able to be proven.
     Frank also admitted that, though he had planned to murder his mother-in-law, he had not wanted to harm James. Unfortunately, when she tumbled out of the wagon after being hit, James had jumped out and run towards their home, calling at the top of his lungs for his brother, Augustus. Frank followed and caught him. "I didn’t want to kill him." Frank had stated. "I only wanted to tell him not to holler; but he fought me, and I struck him, not intending to kill him." He then admitted returning to the woman and "finishing" her.
     "I have brought disgrace upon myself and you," Frank said to his brother. "Mother is old and will not live long. Only two of you will be left. I am sorry for what happened. I wish I hadn’t killed Jimmy, but I couldn't help it. I hope you will forgive me."
     There is nothing on record of whether his apology was accepted or not.
     Frank spent his last few hours reading a Catholic prayer book and receiving the holy sacrament from Reverend Younker. With the hope that she would be raised without the knowledge of who her parents were, Frank also signed a document naming the Reverend as the legal guardian of his daughter.
     On September 8, 1854 thirty witnesses were allowed to watch the hanging of Francis Dick. A statute had been passed since the McAffee hanging which stated that executions in Ohio were not allowed to be held in public. Executions had to be conducted out of sight of the general population and only court approved witnesses could attend.
     The scaffold had been set up that morning inside the two-tiered jail, in the west end of the corridor into which the south side cells opened. The corridor was dimly lit by grate windows in the side of the building and skylights in the arch thirty feet above. The platform that held the trapdoor was on the same level as Frank’s cell. This shortened the last walk of the condemned man and overcame any reluctance on his part to mount the scaffold steps.
     At 10:15 Sheriff Henderson called for Frank to be led from his cell. Frank had been dressed all in white; from the rolled-up hood on the top of his head, down to his stockings and shoes. A white robe concealed a white shirt and pair of pantaloons underneath. Even his hands were covered by white gloves.
     All the clothing was a feeble attempt to disguise the fact that a man was about to die. Once the hood was pulled down, the body of the condemned could be almost thought of as a sack of flour. No twitching of muscles, no tremor of fingers would be seen to remind witnesses that death from hanging was often a hard way to go.
     Frank moved like a ghost towards his grave as he walked through the faint light to take his position on the scaffold. The Reverend performed his solemn service and the Sheriff moved in and adjusted the noose. After a few whispered responses Frank affectionately embraced the Reverend Father and kissed him on the cheek. He then turned to Sheriff Henderson, who softly asked him if he desired to say anything. Dick replied that he did not. He then bid the officer goodbye by kissing his cheek. Still retaining an amazing amount of composure, Frank whispered "Give me as speedy a death as you can" to the Sheriff as the hood was pulled over his face.
     What happened next was attributed to the fact that, when Frank turned his head to kiss the two men, the knot of the noose slid around to the side of his neck. When the trap door opened, the noose slipped back around, causing the neck not to break. Frank’s struggle on the gallows for his life was severe, his body convulsing and his legs attempting to find a purchase. His chest heaved violently for about four minutes and then his efforts slowed. A few minutes later his suffering finally ceased.
     Frank was allowed to hang for twenty minutes before being lowered into a waiting coffin, which was then placed in Reverend Younker’s care. The coffin was conveyed in a hearse to St. Henry’s Cemetery. It was explained that Frank had confessed his crimes and asked for last rites and thus would be allowed to be buried there.

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