By Parker Anderson
The first legal hanging in Prescott’s history of Manuel Abiles is not remembered as an extraordinary event. The people involved are not colorful and legendary, though it has been written about a number of times. (Note: There are three spellings in various documents and accounts of the first Prescott hanging pertaining to his last name. The oldest documents at the time of the hanging spell his last name Abiles. Later written accounts use Aviles. There is even one newspaper article that spells his name Abelis. To maintain consistency, we will use the name as given in the oldest documents.)
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