Quintuple Executions

The Early Days Of The Electric Chair

This is a combination of two early episodes with a common theme.

The Shocking Death Of William Kemmler: The First Electric Execution

Jump to AD-FREE Safe House Edition

Episode 19. Following the brutal murder of his common law wife Tillie Ziegler in Buffalo, New York, March, 1889, the rough character William Kemmler said he was glad he did it was was happy to hang for the crime. He did not quite get his wish, as a newly passed law in the state of New York allowed Kemmler to become the first man to die in the electric chair. His executioners knew that the execution would be an experiment of sorts, and it was not exactly the rousing success they had hoped for, but it did usher in a new era in America’s criminal justice system.


Quadruple Electrocutions: Four Murders, Four Executions

Jump to AD-FREE Safe House Edition

Episode 39 is a follow-up to Episode 19, "The Shocking Death of William Kemmler," which I had published about two months prior. If you remember, that execution went so badly that many thought it was a failed experiment. Indeed, it took the state of New York nearly a year to perform a second electric chair execution, but it did so with a bang, putting four men to death on the same day, July 7, 1891. - Will it work out any better? Listen and find out…

Listen to more episodes about CAPITAL CRIMES


Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.

You can pay more if you want to, but rent at the Safe House is still just a buck a week, and you can get access to over 400 ad-free episodes from the dusty vault, Safe House Exclusives, direct access to the Boss, and whatever personal services you require.

We invite you to our other PULPULAR MEDIA podcasts:

If disaster is more your jam, check out CATASTROPHIC CALAMITIES, telling the stories of famous and forgotten tragedies of the 19th and 20th centuries. What could go wrong? Everything!

For brand-new tales in the old clothes from the golden era of popular literature, give your ears a treat with PULP MAGAZINES with two new stories every week.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Auburn, New York, August sixth, eighteen ninety. At five o'clock
this morning, Landlord Gregory of the Osborne House, holding in
one hand a list of room numbers, stood in his office,
tapping pushbuttons which rang an electric fire bell in each
of the rooms indicated upon his list, and them were
sleeping the persons who had been summoned by the prison

(00:36):
warden to witness the death by electricity of murderer William Kimmler.
Porters too were heavily thumping at room doors. There was
to be no mistake about the efficacy of the summons.
There was none. Doctors and laymen hurriedly dressed. The sun
was sending its slant bars of morning light over the
city of Auburn. The sky was cloudless the air pool,

(01:00):
and a slight breeze swayed the treetops. The men of
the press had been vigilant. They too, came trooping from
the rooms to swallow coffee and rolls before going to
the prison. And the pocket of each guest of the
state was a card bearing an order of admission to
the prison, And before retiring, each had been privately warned
to present himself at the prison gate not later than

(01:21):
six o'clock this morning. Some were there at the hour named,
others were not, and Warden Durston, impatient for the delay,
was pacing the halls and peering often and anxiously down
to the big iron gate at the entrance. The hour
and fifteen minutes more had passed before doctor Spitska arrived
with a case of instruments in his hand. Doctor Stradie

(01:43):
and Jenkins of New York were yet missing. They had
not left the hotel table. At seven o'clock, the twelve
hundred convicts would be marched according to the daily routine,
out from the mess room to the shops. The belting,
which was to operate the dynamo away in the loft
of the marble shop, could not be without the prisoners.
Knowing that Kimler's hour had come. No one could tell

(02:04):
what spirit might be developed by those fellows in striped clothing.
As such knowledge was forced upon them, the agent and
Warden grew momentarily more impatient. He would have the execution
all over, if possible, before the men were astir in
the shops. Gentlemen, I will not wait any longer for
those who are not here, he exclaimed, after peering a
last time down to the iron gate. This affair cannot

(02:26):
be made subject to personal convenience, and I think it
unfair to me that I should have been kept waiting
until this hour. The big clock in the main hall
then marked six point twenty three. Only thirty seven minutes
were left in which to take Kimmler's life before the
convicts should be released to work. Silently. Then, those waiting
in the cool, breezy hall gathered about the warden, who

(02:48):
led the way to the rear hall. There a guard
with a great key stood to open and close the
door to the basement region of the prison. The huge
iron bolted barrier swung back. The warden led the way.
The silent party descended the iron staircase to the stone
floored hall. The way lay through a low doorway in

(03:08):
the mass of basement wall into a room dimly lighted
as yet by the early sunshine. In the half gloom,
the massive chair of death loomed out of the shadows
at a little distance from the entrance. The guests filed
past it. Every strap and every buckle to bind the
victim to his death seat was carefully placed to avoid delay.

(03:29):
The electrode for the head hung in its place like
the sprinkler disc dangling to deliver a shower. Bath chairs
and benches stood about the room in a semicircle, and
the uncertain light of the fateful room they formed a horseshoe.
In its opening stood the heavy chair with its grim
straps and buckles down over one window toward the east,

(03:52):
a heavy shade was drawn, while through the bars and
the other window, the morning air came cool and fresh
through the Virginia creepers, which swept the irons with soft,
rustling touch. Someone whispered to his neighbor that it was
too bright a day on which to die. The neighbor
answered that death could not be attended by too much sunshine.
Both peered forth to where the dogs frolicked on the

(04:14):
smooth lawn and the grape vines moved in the shadow
of the prison's high wall. Bird songs drifted through the
bars on the dew cooled air. Suddenly the room was
lighted from within. The warden had turned up the low
burning flame on one of the blackened gas burners on
an ancient chandelier. In his final arrangements, he had placed
all the electrical apparatus in an ante room, the wires

(04:36):
being run over a casement to the death chamber. This
ante room the warden kept carefully shut, save when he
or some helper passed hastily in or out. In charge,
there were three men whom the warden refused to name
the purpose of the late change of the electrical vault
meter and the switches to another room became apparent. Those
who should see Keimmler die were never to know who

(04:58):
had pushed the switch to send the death bolt to
Kimler's vitals. While the final adjustments were being made, doctors
Stradi and Jenkins entered. The witnesses were all within the room. Meantime,
in his cell, Kimler was being prepared for the ending
of his life. He had gone peacefully to sleep early
in the night and had slept soundly. He was snoring

(05:20):
until five o'clock when he was awakened by one of
his guards. Prison Chaplain Yates and Pastor Houghton, who has
all along attended Kimler, were with him. They read to
him from the Bible, and he prayed with them. He
dressed himself without aid, in a suit of gray mixed goods.
His hair, he combed and brushed with great care. His
shoes were carefully polished, and while he made himself finally tidy,

(05:43):
the warden entered the cell with a tall stranger, a
deputy sheriff from Buffalo. The stranger held by his side
a pair of clippers. Warden Durston explained to Kimler that
he must have the top of his head shaved. The
prisoner demurred, he had taken great pains dressing his hair,
and beside he explained to the warden he did not
want to be disfigured. He wanted the people to see

(06:05):
and know that he was not a man of repulsive
appearance as had been stated. Kimler's hair was dark brown
and wavy, with a hyperian curl that fell upon his forehead.
Of this curl, he was proud, and the shadow of
death his vanity, asserted itself. His hair was cut, but
the curl was saved, and as the sequel proved, with
no good result, the shaven spot was two and a

(06:28):
quarter by one and a quarter inches inside and was
not shaven, only cropped fairly close. While this barbering process
went on, and the witness examined the chair of death,
the belt was run upon the dynamo away down in
the south wing of the prison, and the incandescent test
lamps in the ante room glowed faintly. The current was on,

(06:49):
the strange power was coursing the circuit. The evidence was there,
but how feebly burned those little lamps. Thus exclaimed doctor MacDonald,
he was the only one who made his way into
the ante and that while ignorant of the warden's desire
to keep its secrets inviolate. In response to doctor McDonald's comment,
Electrician Davis remarked that there was something wrong about the

(07:10):
machinery down there, referring to the dynamo end of the circuit.
This remark took place before the electricizing, it is well
to remember, and was undoubtedly as true a few minutes later,
when the fatal bolt was applied to Kimler, the condemned man,
after having his hair cut on the top of his head,
listened to the reading of the death warrant by the warden.

(07:31):
None of the state witnesses were present, only the prisoner,
the preachers, and the warden. Kimler was cool, unruffled, almost apathetic.
The last named condition, however, was discredited by the blanched
eye of the man's face. Come, Bill commanded the Warden.
All had been done in the cell, and the little

(07:51):
party of four Warden, prisoner and the two clergymen passed
through the ante room, passed the electrical appliances, and the
warden led the way finally into the death chamber. Close
behind him trod the man he was soon to kill.
His hands swung at his side easily, save when, as
though in some embarrassment, he stroked his brown beard and

(08:12):
mustache as he confronted the white, expectant faces of the
twenty five witnesses who stood staring at him. Warden Durston
placed a plain, wooden bottom chair directly in front of
the great grim chair which was to claimed Kimmler as
its occupant, and bade the condemned man to sit upon it.
He obeyed readily. There was no uneasiness about his moments.

(08:34):
He seated himself leisurely. There was no nervous tension apparent
in him, indeed, not nearly so much as in the
men about him. The Warden took a place beside Kimler.
After the latter was seated in the kitchen chair placed
for him, he rested his arm over the prisoner's shoulder
on the chair back, holding his hat in his hand,
and standing in the silent chamber, the state officer presented

(08:57):
the condemned man to those present, introduced him. Indeed these
were his words. Now, gentlemen, this is William Kimler. I've
just read the death warrant to him and have told
him he has got to die, and if he has
anything to say, he will say it. Such a formality
at such a time and such a place startled and
surprised those who heard it. Kimler alone seemed gratified he

(09:21):
had at last an opportunity to speak. As the warden
moved back, the prisoner glanced about the half circle of curious,
pitying faces before him, with his feet wide apart on
the stone floor, with a hand on either knee and
elbows a kimbo. The simple fellow said, well, I wish
everybody good luck in the world, he went on, in easy,

(09:41):
steady tones, and I'll go to a good place. And
the papers has been saying a lot of stuff about
me that ain't so. That was all, But into the
poor wretch's face came an expression men have when they
have acquitted themselves of some act that they had anticipated.
Kimler's face was a study with all else depicted. There
was a something else, evidence submission to force. Those who

(10:04):
looked into his eyes would not have wondered if he
had said, I'm fast and close here. I know him
to be killed, but don't hurt me. Don't hurt me.
There was an apprehension without horror, plainly written upon his features.
He glanced over his shoulder as he ceased speaking, and
mister Durston came to his side. Take off your coat, Bill,
said he. There was no word, but steady of arm

(10:26):
in hand. He pulled off one sleeve and then swung
the garment to the chair from which he had risen.
The warden stood behind him, drew forth the bottom of
his shirt and cut it off behind, so as to
permit easy adjustment of one of the electrodes. Meanwhile, kim
Ler readjusted his necktie, which was already neatly fixed in
a bow. Knot are your suspenders all right? Asked the warden,

(10:47):
as he laid down the shears he had used. Yes,
all right, was the answer. Well, then, Bill, you'd best
sit down here, said the warden, whose heart is kind,
and whose tone was that of a parent to a child,
that should be correct. The warden was moved with compassion
for this fellow being, who, obedient to a nod, seated
himself in the great chair, from which he knew he

(11:08):
would never rise alive. His submission somehow seemed like the patient,
uncomprehending passivity of an ox led to the shambles. He
trusted the officer, who he knew was to kill him.
It was an exhibition of confidence found in animals. Two
other men were working at the straps, first the arms,
then the chest, waist, hips, legs, and lastly the leather mask.

(11:31):
There was some fumbling in the nervous haste, and the
doomed man, observing it, spoke, take your time. He said,
take your time. While he spoke, he held high his
arms to make easy the binding of his chest. And
again the witnesses glanced each into his neighbor's face in
approval or compassion. Then, as the insulated next saddle was

(11:52):
being placed, he suggested that if pressed forward as it
was being adjusted, it would be more easy for him.
All right, Bill returned the warden, in his voice, was
a trifle unsteady. It won't hurt you, Bill, It won't
hurt you at all, he added, take your time, mister Durston,
don't be in a hurry. The prisoner said again in response,
and then he added, as the dangling mask was being

(12:14):
placed for adjustment, well, I wish everybody good luck. Then
the mask was drawn across Kimler's face, and so the
doomed man took his place. Some who witnessed admired what
they styled his nerve, and others pitied and dreaded the end,
each spectator after the manner of his sensibilities. The hour

(12:35):
was six o'clock and thirty eight minutes. Take it cool, bill,
I'm going to stay close beside you all the while
till the end, said the warden, as if speaking to
a child who pleads with its mother to stay by
the bedside at night till sleep shall have come. Then
he buckled a strap at one shoulder. I will I'll
take it cool, replied Kimmler. Then, with his elbows upon

(12:58):
the great arms of the chair, he drew himself firmly
back on the seat, so that the electrode pressed him
hard at the base of the spine. It covered his eyes,
grasped his chin, and firmly pressed his forehead. It was
not well fitted. Kimmler said so, and spoke to direct
its proper adjustment. But when the growing sunlight had been
shut out of his eyes, and when the rustling vines

(13:19):
and green grass were closed from his vision, there seemed
to come to him a strong realization of the fact
that sunlight would never again touch his living eyes, and
that upon his sight had dyed the final glimpse of
the bright greenness without the windows. There seemed to rush
over him an overwhelming sense of self pity, for there
was a touching plant in his voice when he spoke,

(13:41):
and the inflections of ox like submission were intensified as
they became focused upon the end of all. He spoke,
do everything right, mister Durson, and pushed down that mora
on top of my head. He referred to the electrode
which was being fitted to the top of his head.
It was done, it seemed to push his head down
between his shoulders, while the mask was buckled back so

(14:03):
tightly that the edge was buried in the skin of
his nose and forehead. Once more, he spoke. The words
were his last, Well, I want to do the best
I can, and I can't do any better than that.
It was the plea of a man in desolation for
human sympathy. He had tried to be steady. His low

(14:27):
nature perhaps deemed such to be bravery, and who shall
say it is not relatively so. He had desired to
save the warden from a harrowing scene, and his appearance,
as well as his manner, had done that. And more
it had disproved all statements that the man was insane
or in a flabby state of dejection. Indeed, he did
not appear the brute that he has been depicted. No,

(14:51):
I can't do any better than that, he repeated, after
a moment's pause. God bless you, Kimmler. You have done well,
Spitzka in his quick, nervous way. And there were pitying
tears in many eyes, and three or four husky voices muttered,
you have Kimler, you have born in the slums of

(15:20):
Philadelphia in eighteen sixty, William Kimmler was one of a
family of eleven children. His father was a German Lutheran.
Very poor, the boy never knew a trade. As a child.
He attended a German school and learned a little, but
he was soon taken from the school to help his father,
who was a butcher, and forgot everything he had learned. Afterwards,

(15:44):
he worked for others as a butcher. Then he sold
vegetables as a huckster, and one of his customers was
Missus Matilda Ziegler of Camden, New Jersey, directly across the
river from Philadelphia. In October eighteen eighty eight, Kimler was
married in Camden to a woman by the name of
Ida Porter. Two days after his wedding, he deserted his

(16:05):
bride and ran away with Missus Ziggler. They went to
Buffalo and became a part of the drift of the
half world so unknown to the other half. Kimler and
his paramour lived like animals in the worst district of Buffalo.
Their life was a constant corrals, interrupted by frequent quarrels.
Kimler wearied of the woman, but like his class, he

(16:26):
did not know how to free himself, and he remained
to bicker and quarrel with her. She filched his scanty
store of money and spent it in wild debach with
other men and women till that fatal morning of March
twenty ninth, eighteen eighty nine, when in the course of
an unusually severe quarrel, Kimler seized a hatchet and, in
a frenzy resulting from the debauch the night before, killed

(16:50):
Tillie Ziggler. She had just put their humble breakfast on
the table. Kimler upbraided her for her intimacy with a
Spaniard known as Yellowdbella, and as she approached, he seized
the hatchet and sent it crushing into her forehead. Then
he hacked and chopped her head, shoulders, breast, and body
until they were only masses of leading, trembling flesh and

(17:11):
protruding bones. Then he dropped the implement of death and
strode out of the house. Visiting several neighbors, he told them,
the blood dripping from his fingers, in his face and
clothing reeking in gore, that he had killed Tilly. I'm
glad I've killed her, he said, not savagely nor exultantly,
but as he might have said it, that it was
a pleasant day. I'm glad I've killed her. I had

(17:34):
to do it, and I'm willing to hang for it.
Tilly Ziggler's little child that had been brought by the
couple when they eloped from Camden was found crouching in
terror in one corner of the room where her mother
had been butchered. Justice was swift afoot in the case
of this Sottish brute. For exactly two weeks later. The
jury on the trial rendered their verdict of guilty of
murder in the first degree. On May ninth, Kimmler's twenty

(17:58):
ninth birthday, Justice Child of the Erie County Court sentenced
William Kimmler to die by electricity with an auburn prison
during the week beginning June twenty fourth, eighteen eighty nine.
In sentencing Kimler, just as Child said, the testimony shows
that your conduct was dissolute to a great degree, that
you feared that she would leave you and return to

(18:19):
her forsaken husband, That you forsook your wife and ruined
Tilly Ziggler, That you cruelly and deliberately planned her murder
and brutally executed it. The verdict was eminently just. The
court advises you to spend the remaining days of your
time on earth and attempting to secure divine pardon after
due repentance. May God have mercy on your soul. The

(18:42):
only person in court not stirred with emotion at this
moment was Kimler himself. He only growled a little and
shuffled back to his cell in the jail. His counsel
accepted to the form of punishment as cruel and unusual
and within the meaning of the interdiction contained in the Constitution.
The next day, May fifteenth, Kimler was taken to Auburn Prison,

(19:03):
there to await, in solitary confinement, the coming of death.
Up to this point, Kimler's life had been hardly different
from that of a brute. There had been no such
thing as love in it. He had little more intelligence
than an animal, and possessed not one scintilla of acquired knowledge.
He says that he was plied with liquor in the
Buffalo jail in order that a confession might be wormed

(19:25):
out of him. But on his arrival at Auburn he
entered a new atmosphere. He was pleased in one of
the two cells prepared especially for the reception of condemned
murderers under the provision of the Electrical Executions Law. That
cell was isolated from the balance of the prison, as
quiet as the tomb. It was neat and clean, and
furnished with a comfortable bed. It was probably the finest

(19:48):
apartment William Kimler had ever occupied, the most clean, the
most free from tumult. Over Kimler was placed a guard,
and the man chosen, Daniel McNaughton, was a hoary headed
away old Scotsman, devout and full of goodness. At first
Kimler was morose and ugly, but little by little the gentle,
silver haired MacNaughton wooed the brute that had been placed

(20:09):
in his keeping, wooed him from himself. Old Daniel MacNaughton
is a god fearing man, and he felt from the
first that Kimler's soul, as well as his body, was
in his keeping, and he set about the deal of
working the murderer into what he believed in his heart
of hearts to be the only path to a future
life of peace and joy. How well his efforts have

(20:32):
succeeded can best be gathered from the lips of the
man himself. Kimler said, the other day, I am glad
that I came to Auburn. I was never happy before.
I am a new man. I have no fear of death,
but would like to be free for a little while
to show the world. What good I could do now
that I have learned Kimler could not tell one letter
of the alphabet from another when he became Daniel McNaughton's charge.

(20:54):
Now he spells and reads from a pictorial primer given
him by his gentle hearted keeper, And in an ecstasy
of pride, he exclaimed, See, I didn't know anything when
I came to old Daniel. Now look I can write good.
If vengeance were what the law seeks by capital punishment
for murder, it would get little satisfaction out of the

(21:15):
event of today. For the poor wretch whose life has
been taken within the shadows of the Auburn prison has
for weeks awaited the coming of black visor death with
a childlike expectancy, almost impatience.

Speaker 2 (21:40):
To avoid future commercial interruption, join us at the Safehouse.
Www dot patreon dot com slash true Crime Historian. Rent
is just a buck a week so you can enjoy
ad free editions of over four hundred episodes, exclusive content,
access to the Boss, and whatever personal services you require.
Www dot patreon dot com slash true crime Historian. The

(22:02):
past is present.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
Every strap had been tightened, each electrode had been pressed
to the seed of life. The warden's deputies stepped back.
There was a hush. The warden inquired of doctors McDonald
and Spitzka how long the current should be maintained in
Kimler's body. The first response was twenty seconds, which was
almost instantly changed to ten seconds. Very well, gentlemen, responded

(22:40):
the warden, and he moved towards the door of his
secret room. And at that moment doctor fell of Buffalo,
who made the death chair, was dropping water from a
bulb syringe through a long rubber tube into the electrode sponges.
The hour was six o'clock and forty two minutes. The
warden reappeared from the ante room. Well everything ready, he said,

(23:01):
while he faced the death chair six feet away. The
bound man in the chair had heard every word. He
knew he was upon the edge of eternity, and a
lightning flash should illuminate his way thither. The secret of
that minute's agony of suspense has gone out with him.
His hands were clutched and rigid. He waited the shock.
And the hour was six o'clock and forty three and

(23:22):
one half minutes. Two and one half minutes had been
consumed in securing him with straps. After he had sat
down in the chair, and from that time till the
moment all was ready, five and a half minutes had passed.
Then he turned the warden and nodded his head to
someone who stood in the secret room. At the final switch,
there's a quick convulsive start of the bound figure in
the chair, a little squeaking sound of straining straps, breathless

(23:46):
watchers with every sense bent upon the helpless, moveless wretch,
bound head, hand and foot, and no sound save the
bird song in the bright sunshine outside the windows. The
bar of a heavy shade at one window was lifted
by the straying breeze and fell back against the bars.
The noise was slight, but to the tense and breathless
watchers in the basement death chamber, it seemed equal to

(24:09):
the sound of clashing arms. Doctor Spitska and doctor Schradi,
drawn by steep interest, almost unconsciously from their places, moved
on tiptoe to positions beside the chair. Then all was still.
No man spoke. Every faculty was contributing to that vision.

(24:29):
Such a scene never was on earth before. Here before
men of science and laymen. Was then in silent operation,
a mysterious agent whose results could only be seen or known.
After that convulsive start that marked the stroke of lightning
upon Kimmler, there was no movement of muscle nor twitch
of nerve. The features from the bridge of the nose

(24:50):
to the chin seemed to have been pursed up as
those of one facing a sleety storm, or one brusting
a powerful dust bearing wind. But all was still. Here
was no driving storm, no rushing gale. There was no
heave of the breast nor distension of the nostril. There
was no twitch nor struggle, a hurrying wave frozen that

(25:11):
the instant of its coming could not have been more
still nor half so impressive as this silent form within
the bounds of death. But was it death? Who should say?
No man of science dared near his ear to the
heart within the rigid figure. There the vicious virus from
the machine's iron loins was yet flowing through that man,

(25:34):
so lately speaking moving. The law demanded that the current
of electricity should be maintained against his vitals until death
should come. But who should tell when death had come?
The men of science believed that the nerve centers were
being beaten as with heavy hammers in different directions at
the rate of some two hundred and thirty times each second.

(25:56):
Their books, though they told of no case like this,
led the wise men to believe that the silent forces
working in this man's body were disintegrating the nerve cells,
the tissues, and the blood too by divorce of oxygen
from its corpuzzles. They thought the blood was becoming, by
mechanical change, fluid eyes and useless to sustain life. And
so they watched and listened in the silent room five ten, fifteen,

(26:22):
seventeen seconds. The time was very short, but to each
one there it seemed like the span of an hour. There,
that's enough, take off the current, said the warden's chosen
physicians McDonald and Spitzka. The warden passed the word within
the adjoining room, where someone had turned on the current,
and where the same one cut it off. Then spoke

(26:44):
the doctors. Observed the lividity about the base of the
nose and the entire nose itself, note where the mask
rests on the nose, the white appearance there. Thus spoke
doctor Spitzka, and other doctors came about and dented the
flesh with their fingers and watched the play of white
and red. Upon their removal, they saw an abrasion upon
the right thumb, and that supreme shock. The murderer's fist

(27:07):
had become so clenched in the convulsion that the nail
of his forefinger had dug into the base of the thumb. Meanwhile,
a button pressed in the secret room had signaled the
stopping of the dynamo. Happiest of all in the room
was doctor Southwick of Buffalo, the father of electrizing in
capital cases, who has been studying and working upon the

(27:27):
subject since eighteen eighty one. There, he exclaimed, as he
strode away from the chair to a knot of witnesses
at the other end of the room, there is the
culmination of ten years work and study. We live in
a higher civilization from this day. But even while he spoke,
a quick, sharp cry went up from those yet closely
watching about the silent figure in the chair. Then moans

(27:50):
of horror from the strong men who looked there had
been as a closely scanned of movement in the breast
of the man, who all believed had died one minute
and forty seven seconds before the doctors and electricians could
at first scarce believe their eyes were true. But doubt
was banished quickly, for there was another movement, a sudden gasp,

(28:10):
and then the breast began to heave with long, deep,
stertorious respirations. There went forth a great cry of sickening
horror at the spectacle of a man half killed under
the operation of the law. Start the current, Start the
current again, shouted doctor Spitzka. Others cried out likewise to
have the harrowing scene brought to a close. All crowded

(28:32):
about the chair and watched the laboring wretch, whose breast,
despite the broad tight bands about him, was rising and
falling with strong force. Slightly foamy saliva exuded from his mouth.
The entire body racked in the efforts of the organs
to resume their functions, and deep fear fell upon some
lest consciousness should return. The doctors declared, however, that the

(28:54):
man was beyond consciousness, and some thought the action which
startled all and sent the ward his way with white
face to order the current renewed was only a reflex
muscular reaction. Not so one physician, who declared he would
stake his name that he could bring Kimmler back to
conscious life with brandy hypodermics. Meantime, mister G. G. Bain

(29:15):
of Washington, d c. Had fainted and lay upon a bench.
Someone was fanning him. This spectacle was continued from six
forty five until six forty seven o'clock. Then there came
to the frail figure within the chair another shock, under
which the straps were strained again. The lungs, however, filled
again and again while the current was pouring through the

(29:37):
unconscious body. Would the man not die? Could not electricity
kill him? Was the agent chosen by the law ineffective?
Those agonizing questions came to each mind and were upon
many lips. The warden and his electrical helper were anxious
beyond measure, and two and one quarter minutes after the
current had been reapplied, the switch was opened and shut

(29:59):
rapidly twice. Each time. The body in the chair was
lifted by the shock, as though one sitting should be
suddenly pricked or burned at the elbows, and should uplift
the shoulders with such suddenness as to lift the body
well nigh clear. The shoulders lifted to the level of
the tops of the ears, and the features contracted as
described the reapplication of the current was continued from six

(30:21):
forty nine and a half to six fifty one o'clock,
intermitted twice at the switch as described. At six fifty one,
another groan of dismay was heard near the chair and
smoke was observed curling up from Kemmler's back. He's burning,
shouted one. Cut off the current, cried another. He's dead.
There's no use in keeping up the current longer, said

(30:41):
someone else. Again. The warden gave the signal to open
the switch, and the body in the chair surcharged. With
four distinct shocks that had been given. It developed no
further movement. He's unquestionably dead, said doctor MacDonald, and he
would never have moved after the spasm of the first
shock had the current been maintained twenty seconds and a
less time with a stronger current. Meanwhile, doctor fell of Buffalo,

(31:06):
with his syringe ball in its long tube, was wetting
the sponge in the electrode at Kimmler's back and putting
out some little fire that had communicated to the man's clothing. Soon,
the smoke from the burning cloth and flesh had disappeared,
drifting along the ceiling to the open windows. Where it
floated lazily out through the bars and Virginia creepers upon
the bright morning air. But the odor remained in the

(31:29):
room of death and clung about the place, stifling and tenacious.
Almost immediately attendants began to unbind the corpse in the
great chair, first the arms, then the legs, next the body,
and finally the mask was removed. The eyes were found
to be half closed and without the glassy stare common

(31:49):
to the eyes and death. The lids were lifted and
tests of the pupils with bright lights were made. There
was no contraction of the pupils. Where the mask had
pressed the forehead, there was a livid mark, the mark
of the Law's righteous desecration. The nose and the region
of its base were of a deeply livid hue. Purple spots.
Soon began modeling the hands, arms, and neck, and the

(32:12):
doctor said he was surely dead. One of the Buffalo doctors,
seven minutes after the straps were removed, cut the skin
at the temple for a microscopic specimen of the dead
man's blood. It was immediately examined and found slightly coagulated.
Kemmler's body was entirely unbound about seven thirty o'clock, and
the doctors determined not to proceed at once with the autopsy.

(32:34):
The witnesses returned to the hotel for breakfast, with the
understanding that they should return at eight fifteen am, at
which time the warden stated he would have the body
disposed ready for post mortem examination. Sing Sing Prison. July seventh,

(33:16):
eighteen ninety one. William Kimmler, who killed his mistress, Missus
Matilda Ziegler, was the first murderer to be executed by electricity,
the new method of administering the extreme penalty of the
law in the state of New York. He was killed
at the Auburn State Prison on August sixth, eighteen ninety

(33:37):
The execution aroused great interest, as it was claimed that
death by electricity would be instantaneous and painless. In Kimler's case,
it was the opposite. In both instances, he was killed
in a shocking manner. It was not a single paralyzing
shock which took his life away, as it was claimed

(33:57):
would be the case. It was access ession of powerful
rending throbs, as if the nerves were being torn piece
by peace from their centers. The current was turned into
the body twice. On the first occasion, the electric throbs
were continued for eighteen seconds. Then the switch was turned
back and a careful examination of the body made. To

(34:20):
the surprise and horror of the witnesses, signs of respiration
were observed, and the current was hastily turned into the
wretched man's body. The second time, Kimler's chest heaved and
froth gathered at his mouth. The destroying tide this time
did more than its deadly work. The sickening odor of
burning flesh filled the room. The unfortunate convict was being roasted.

(34:44):
Smoke came from his mouth. He was then declared dead.
The autopsy showed that the muscles and brain were literally baked.
Kemmler was alive six minutes after the current was turned on.
The experts who witnessed the execution pronounced the killing brutal,
worse than hanging, said one of them. It was thought
at the time that there would not be another execution

(35:05):
by means of electricity, But neither the courts nor the
legislature would interfere with the enforcement of the law. Not
the means, but the manner was cruel in which Kemmler
was killed. It was said and that another test would
establish that the most humane method for inflicting the death
penalty was by electricity sing Sing Prison. July seventh, eighteen

(35:36):
ninety one. The darkness of impending doom closing in about
the four unhappy creatures lashed in the little building behind
the brick wall found them in the final acts of devotion.
Reverend fathers Creeden, Lynch and Hogan and Reverend mister Edgerton
had been with them many hours, preparing them for the

(35:57):
transition that was about to take place. The doomed men
seemed at last to be in full realization of their
awful situation, which showed no signs of weakening. While finally
realizing that their final hours were few, the condemned men
did not forget to order breakfast with strange care. Even

(36:18):
Joseph Wood, who had been for days losing his grip
on the world, seemed brighter, his confidence in his courage
seeming to revive new stimulus from the good priests. Wood
said to Principal Keeper Connaton, I suppose I'd better have
beef steak and onions again for breakfast. I'll not have
many more chances. Shabuya Jujiro did not vary his daily

(36:44):
order for the past week, calling for sardines, raw onions
and the like. James slocumbe and Harry Smiler's orders began
with oatmeal porridge and finished with ham and eggs. Neither
of the four referred in an anyway to their rapidly
approaching end, but all by their silence, subdued manner, and

(37:06):
restrained soft voices as if they were in the sick room,
indicated that they fully appreciated their dreadful predicament. At the
usual hour between nine and ten o'clock, the men lay
down to sleep, as if only the ordinary were in
prospect for them. In a piece incomprehensible, these miserable creatures

(37:29):
fell asleep, and during the still watches of the night,
only their regular easy breathing broke the awful stillness of
the walled and grated chambers of death. The murderer James
slocumbe the story of his life and the crime for
which he suffered death. James Slocum's crime was the brutal

(37:53):
murder of his young and pretty wife, Ella, whom he
killed in a fit of jealous frenzy at midnight of
December thirty first eighteen eighty nine, just as the Trinity's
chimes were ringing in the year of eighteen ninety that
fatal New Year's Eve, Slocum, on arriving home at one
hundred and fourteen Roosevelt Street, a cheap lodging house where

(38:15):
he occupied with his wife a dirty, scantily furnished room,
found her in the room of John Williams alias Greek John,
in the same building. Angry and jealous because he found
her in Greek John's society, he kicked and beat her,
then dragged her into his own room, from whence her
screams were heard all over the house. Such occurrences were

(38:37):
not uncommon in that notorious neighborhood. The neighbors, who had
quarrels enough of their own, maintained strict neutrality and never
interfered in the battles of others. So it was that
no one came to the assistance of poor missus Slocumb.
Maddened by the sight of blood, like a wild beast
when devouring its prey, the murderer, after beating into insensibility

(39:01):
his bleeding and helpless victim, seized a hatchet and delivered
with it the death blow on the side of her head.
To finish the fiendish butchery, he flung thick plates and
cups and saucers upon her head and face with such
force as to smash the crockery and cut her flesh
to the bone. There was a pool of blood on

(39:22):
the floor, and it was evident that the brute had
dragged his wife from it to the bed and covered
her with the counterpane to make it appear that she
was asleep. Then he fled. The body was discovered the
following morning by missus Alice Cannely, who lived on the
same floor. Detectives, aided by Patrick Perkins, Missus Slocum's father,

(39:45):
traced Slocumb across the bridge, only to find that he
had returned to this city and was lost among the
dives of Cherry Street. Warned of the officer's pursuit, he
secreted himself in a lodging house on Washington Street. Again
notified by friends, he managed to elude the police and
took refuge in the loft of an old rookery at

(40:07):
one hundred and five Greenwich Street. Here, the lynx eyed
man hunters located him and laid plans for his capture.
Detective Mullin, disguised as a tramp, hired a bed in
the rickety old building. He kept a close watch on Slocum,
and on the night of January nineteenth, after he had

(40:27):
gone to bed, the officers burst open the door of
the room, ready to pounce upon their man, but to
their surprise, his cot was empty. Looking up, they saw
a pair of bare legs disappearing through the skylight. The
legs belonged to the murderer, who had been worn by
his pals of the detective's approach in time to spring

(40:48):
from his bed, clad only in his undershirt, to reach
the ladder and dash up through the skylight. Then followed
an exciting midnight chase over housetops which ended at a
fire escape. This extended within twenty three feet of the ground,
and the fugitive, without hesitation, leaped from it into the

(41:08):
adjoining yard, apparently unhurt, and disappeared over a fence. His
footsteps betrayed him. He was traced to a stable shed
in the rear of one hundred and nine Greenwich Street,
where he was found concealed under a bundle of straw.
The murderer was tried and convicted on March eleventh, last year.

(41:31):
His lawyers called no witnesses for the defense, but asked
for a verdict of manslaughter in the first or second degree,
because he argued the killing was done in the heat
of passion and without deliberation or premeditation. The jury did
not look at it in that light, and after two
hours deliberation, brought in a verdict of murder in the

(41:53):
first degree. Slocum heard the verdict apparently unmoved. The same
calmness an indifference characterized him when he was sentenced a
week later to die in the electric chair during the
week beginning May fifth, last year. In fact, he has
always appeared indifferent to his ultimate fate. Slocumbe was born

(42:16):
in this city in eighteen sixty eight. His wife was
a New Yorker also and of the same age. She
was infatuated with her murderer. She lived prior to her
marriage five years ago, with her parents at thirteen Cherry Street.
Ella Perkins was considered the bell of Cherry Hill. She
became acquainted with Slocumb at the midnight dances on the

(42:38):
Dover Street Dock, where Slocum furnished the music with his accordion.
Slocumb had been a catcher in the Wilkesbury, Pennsylvania baseball
team and at one time a member of the New
Haven Nine. He married his wife while a ballplayer, but
he soon went to the bad He made low places
his resort and learned to steal. About four years ago,

(43:02):
he was sent to Sing Sing for a term of
two and a half years for stealing a watch. After
his release from state prisons, Slocum resumed his dissipated habits.
Once in a while, he worked on the docks as
a laborer or as a truck driver, but finally he
sank lower and lower and became a regular fourth ward rounder.

(43:22):
I was drunk when I killed her, was the only
excuse he ever made.

Speaker 2 (43:27):
Enjoy ad free listening at the safehouse. Dubbadubbadubba dot Patreon
dot com, slash true crime historian.

Speaker 1 (43:40):
In May eighteen ninety, Slocum wrote a letter that was
published in newspapers across the country. I write to let
you know that the warden has given me the privilege
to write, and I tell you that it is a godsend.
The prison house for condemned murderers is built in a
pit dug in the ground, with the space of perhaps

(44:03):
three feet between the walls of the house and the
walls of the pit. The structure is about forty feet high,
but the roof is only a few feet above the
level of the ground. All the light in the place
is sifted through five windows six inches wide and about
six feet high, that are cut in the side of
this tomb, which, by the way, is built of gray

(44:26):
granite to make the graveyard resemblance perfect. You enter the
place through an underground passage, and the stillness within is
something frightful. A pin falling on the floor sounds as
though one dropped a bar of iron on the street.
The prisoners wear soft felt slippers, the keeper wears the same,

(44:47):
and the visitors, when they enter, are compelled to slip
a pair of cloth sandals over their shoes. A half
dozen pairs of these sandals are kept at the entrance
for this purpose. Not a sound is ever heard in
the place, and not a murmur from the great world
above penetrates the huge buried walls. At one end of

(45:08):
this terrible place, which is about forty feet square, are
the cells where the prisoners are kept in solitary confinement.
These cells, under the law They are never to leave
even for a moment, from that instance that they come
into the prison until they are taken out to die
on the dynamo, and no one on the outside is

(45:28):
allowed to enter them. The prisoners, day in and day out,
see no one except the keeper, who sits at a
table facing them. They look out on this silent keeper
through the bars that are almost as thick as your arms,
and unless he talks to them, which he rarely does,
they can only walk back and forth in their narrow

(45:49):
six by eight cells. Even this, however, is a difficult task,
for after you take away the space required by a bed, washstand,
closet to table, the men have a space of about
eight feet by two left in which to take a walk.
In the face of all this, it is certainly a
terrible cruelty to provide them of the right to send

(46:12):
a letter to their friends outside. And I determine that
this slight indulgence should at least be granted. To show
you how rigidly the men are kept in their cells,
I will give you an instance to the condemned JAP
who occupies one of the cells adjoining mine. From his
close confinement. The Jap was taken sick and a doctor

(46:34):
was called in to attend him, but not even the
physicians was allowed within the cell. The jap had to
come to the front, shove out his arm through the
bar so that his pulse might be felt, and afterward
press his face against the bars and stick out his
tongue which the doctor wanted to see. The prisoners are
absolutely buried alive from the time of their entrance in

(46:57):
the prison, and only two men in the world care
marry the keys to these tombs. They are Warden Brush
and Headkeeper Conaton. Smilers life and crime. He was a
born tough, a bigamist, and a wife beater. Harris a smiler,

(47:18):
the wife murderer, was thirty three years old. Judging from
his life and the testimony of those who knew him intimately,
he was a born tough. He always manifested the lowest
and most brutal instincts, and in disposition was sullen and revengeful,
and his record as a wife beater was almost unparalleled.

(47:40):
At the time of the murder of widow Maggie Drainey,
with whom he was living as his wife, he had
two other wives residing in this city, whom he had
deserted one after the other after abusing and maltreating them successively.
His first wife was a Maggie Kears, who lives in Harlem.
He deserted her seven years ago to live with a

(48:02):
woman named Elizabeth Gates, to whom he was subsequently married,
and in June eighteen eighty nine he married the widow Drainey,
whom he had known for two years. Four years ago.
Smiler was a soldier in the Salvation Army and rose
in the ranks of that organization until he was commissioned
a lieutenant. He was stationed at the time in the

(48:24):
Thirteenth Street Barracks, and after he stepped out of the ranks,
he found employment in the mailing departments of several different newspapers.
The ceremony of marriage by which he undertook to make
the widow Drainey his wife, was performed by the Reverend
Doctor Blewett in a mission in Thirteenth Street on June fourteenth,
eighteen eighty nine. The couple went to live at eleven

(48:47):
Prince Street, and it was not long before Smiler's brutal
instincts began to be exhibited. Within three months after he
began living with the woman. Smiler was twice locked up
by police for cruel assaulting her. He continued to beat
her at intervals, and on one occasion, not more than
three weeks before the murder, he attacked her in the

(49:08):
street and struck and kicked her till her face and
body were covered with bruises. For this, he was arrested again,
but soon secured his freedom. He was at his worst
when he had been drinking, and after a while, whenever
his wife saw his ugly fit coming on, she would
leave the house and seek refuge with her friend, the

(49:29):
widow Wilson, who lived on the top floor of two
eighty four seventh Avenue. It was here that the murder
was committed on the night of Thursday, April third, eighteen ninety.
Maggie had been there a score of times before, and
her last escape from the brutality of Smiler was on
the previous Tuesday. He had been looking for her with

(49:51):
murder in his heart for three days when he finally
located her in the room of the widow Wilson. He
went upstairs and knocked at the door eleven o'clock on
Thursday night. Missus Wilson opened it and Smiler, in a
harsh voice, asked if his wife was there. The poor
woman heard his question, and, from her place of concealment

(50:12):
behind the door, tried to make her friend answer no.
It was too late, however, for without waiting for any
reply to his question, Smiler pushed the woman roughly aside
and crowded into the room. His wife tried to escape
into another room, but Smiler ran to the door and
blocked her way. Put on your things and come with me,

(50:35):
he said, in a menacing tone. The trembling woman pleaded
to be allowed to stay with her friend, and appealed
piteously to missus Wilson for protection. Smiler, however, was inexorable.
Her tears seemed to madden him, and he shook her
roughly by the arm and tried to drag her to
the door. Come on, he said, But she resisted his

(50:58):
effort to force her from the room to the hallway,
and clung frantically to the widow. Wilson. You better let
your wife stay with me tonight, urged missus Wilson. And
she will go home in the morning if you will
come for her. Smiler, however, had worked himself up into
a paroxysm of rage and would not listen to her
entreaties without a word of warning. As he saw his

(51:21):
wife trying to reach the door of another lodger's room,
he drew out a revolver and began firing at the
helpless woman, who was distant but an arm's length from him.
The first bullet entered her head, and she fell with
a groan on the threshold of the room. The murderer, however,
kept on firing, and two more bullets were sent into

(51:42):
the woman's breast, and a fourth lodged in her right arm.
Missus Wilson, who had started to find a policeman as
soon as Smiler drew his pistol, returned shortly after with
Officer Collins of the sixteenth Precinct. The murderer, after completing
his bloody work, had fled, and the day dead woman's
body lay in the narrow hallway a ghastly spectacle. Smiler

(52:05):
was caught by the police of Captain Grant's squad about
two hours later. He had escaped from the house by
the backway, and scaling the fence in the yard, came
out on twenty sixth Street. It was ascertained that his
former wife, Elizabeth Gates, lived at four forty one West
twenty sixth Street, and a watch was set near the house.

(52:26):
Smiler's brother lived at one fifty five West twenty sixth
Street as a janitor of the building, and it was
learned that the murderer had been around there earlier in
the evening. He flourished the pistol and demanded his wife,
telling his brother he would shoot her as soon as
he found her. He was finally captured as he was
entering the house of the gateswoman at four forty one

(52:47):
West twenty sixth Street. He had been hiding in a
neighborhood saloon, bracing himself up with liquor, and had reloaded
the pistol with which he had committed the foul crime.
He showed fight when the police arrested him, but he
was easily overpowered and taken to the West twentieth Street station.
At first he denied that he had shot his wife.

(53:09):
Then he said she drank and made trouble for him,
and when he was told that she was dead, he
showed the utmost indifference and replied, all right, then I
will hang I suppose bury me in the same grave
with her. Soon after being placed in confinement, Smiler began
to feign insanity, but without much success. When he was

(53:31):
arraigned on April twenty eighth, eighteen ninety, to plead to
the indictment against him for murder in the first degree,
he replied with a leer to the inquiry of the
clerk as to whether he was guilty or not guilty.
Oh rats, you're crazy. You think you're smart, but you
don't catch me, he said. Then, when he was asked
if he had secured a lawyer, he ground out, lawyer,

(53:52):
I don't want any lawyer. What do I want a
lawyer for? Smiler's trial under the charge was begun on
June fifth, eighteen ninety, and continued for five days. One
of the witnesses against him was wife number two, Lizzie Gates,
who was in court with her eight months old baby.
She said that Smiler had turned her adrift with her

(54:13):
child and they would have starved but for the kindness
of friends. Smiler's defense was insanity, and he tried to
make the jury believe that he was really crazy by
his eccentric conduct. During the trial, he would break out
on every possible occasion and interrupt the proceedings and repeatedly
called Assistant District Attorney Goff, who tried the case for

(54:34):
the people, a crazy fool, and heaped abuse upon him.
The evidence, however, showed that Smiler was perfectly saying when
he committed the crime, and it took the jury only
half an hour to decide that he was guilty of
wilful deliberate murder. They gave their verdict on June tenth,
and a few days afterwards, he was sentenced to be

(54:55):
executed by electricity. Jujiro's brutal crime he stabbed a fellow
countryman without any real cause. It was for the assassination
November tenth, eighteen eighty nine of his friend and countryman Murakomi,
that the Japanese man Shibuya Jujiro was condemned to be

(55:18):
executed by electricity. Komi was, like his murderer, a sailor.
They had known each other in Japan and lived together
in New York City at the boarding house of Charles
Emoto eighty four James Street. The motive for the crime
was trifling. Both men were awaiting shipmen on a vessel
bound for Japan, where Komi had a wife and family.

(55:41):
It was the custom of Japanese masters of vessels when
vacancies existed in their crews, to apply to Imoto to
fill them. To prevent a charge of favouritism, the boarding
housekeeper kept a list of his borders, the name of
each arrival being placed at the bottom, and men to
fill vacancies being selected from the top of the list.
On November ninth, eighteen eighty nine, the master of a

(56:04):
Japanese barque lying in the East River applied for a sailor,
and Komi's name being at the top of the list,
he was engaged. The barque was set to sail for
Japan the following morning, and Komi, having been waiting for
several months for a chance to go home to his
wife and children, was rejoiced at the prospect, and in
giving vent to his joy, he awoke Jujiro, whose name

(56:25):
was near the bottom of the list, but who nevertheless
tried to persuade Komi to withdraw in his favor. The
proposition was rejected, and finally, after pleading in vain, Jujiro
began to threaten, and, suddenly, being apparently seized with an
uncontrollable fit of rage, he jumped at Komi grasped him
by the throat and attempted to beat his brains out

(56:47):
against the wall. Other boarders, who had been awakened by
the row, interfered and released Komi, and after a short parley,
Jujiro apparently became reconciled to his fate and went to bed.
Komi then began preparations for his departure and was engaged
at a table in the front room packing his kit

(57:07):
Jujiro evidently only feigned sleep, and when quiet had been restored,
he sneaked in his stocking feet to the kitchen, where
he secured a long and very sharp carving knife. Creeping
up behind Komy, who was gently humming one of his
native songs and doubtless filled with thoughts of home, Jiujiro
plunged the knife to the hilt in his left breast,

(57:29):
and then, with fiendish ferocity, began twisting it around in
the wound. The wounded man cried out and Emoto ran
to the rescue, whereupon Jujiro pulled the knife from the
wound and attacked the proprietor. Seven or eight others sprang
to Emoto's aid, and the murderer was with difficulty secured

(57:50):
and bound hand and foot. Jujiro was tried a month
after the murder. He pleaded self defense, but the prosecution
clearly proved that he committed deliberate, brutal murder. It took
a jury a very short time to agree on a
verdict of guilty. He was sentenced on December sixteenth, eighteen

(58:10):
eighty nine, to be executed during the week beginning February third,
eighteen ninety, being the first man in New York County
condemned to die by electricity. Before sentence was passed, he
declared with vehemence that he was convicted on the testimony
of false witnesses. If the court has no sympathy for me,
he exclaimed in Japanese, I must rely upon an appeal

(58:33):
to the governor. His council appointed to defend him exhausted
every legal means to save their client. Throughout his imprisonment,
Jujiro preserved a stolid silence. He was sullen and morose.
His appearance in the courtroom the last time was the
most pitiful. His face, which was almost covered by his beard,

(58:56):
gave no evidence of thought or feeling. He sat with
the arms crossed and his eyes half closed, apparently oblivious
to his surroundings. He preserved the same stolidity. When informed
by an interpreter of the sentence of the court, he
hung his head. Neither sign nor word escaped him, but

(59:17):
in his face there was a look of terror and despair.
Jujiro was about forty five years old. He was five
feet seven inches tall and weighed about one hundred and
sixty pounds. His figure was squatty, His head rested almost
directly upon his shoulders. He had bright, little black eyes
set close together. He wore a full black beard, straight

(59:39):
and wiry. His hair had been cut closely cropped. During
the last few months of his life. Jujiro became melancholy
toward the last, and his brutish nature asserting itself. He
became filthy and beastly in his habits. When the witnesses

(01:00:13):
had gathered in the chamber, some of them appeared very nervous,
and all showed signs of great strain on their sensibilities.
The sliding door which concealed the switchboard on the outside
of the executioner's closet was raised, and the witnesses gathered about.
Doctors MacDonald and Rockwell, and Professor Ludy the scientists in

(01:00:33):
charge of the electrocution, who proceeded to signal the electrician
in the dynamo room five bells. The signal to get
ready was soon followed by one toll, which signified turn
on the current. Immediately, the incandescent lamps on the switchboard
gave out their white light, and the scientists turned the
current into the vault meter, then into the amper meter,

(01:00:56):
and when fully satisfied with its indicated power, they informed
the warden Warden Brown, Deputy Warden Connatan, and two keeper
deputies then entered the death cell building to bring forth
the trembling wretch who was the first to pay the
penalty of his crime. Fathers Creeden and Lynch were engaged

(01:01:16):
with Slocum when Warden Brown and his deputies entered. Slocum
had been selected as the first victim, and as soon
as the good priest had finished their supplications, he said
he was ready and stepped out of his cell with alacrity.
Then the death walk began. Following the warden and his
deputy came Slocum between the two priests, who hewled aloft

(01:01:40):
in front of him a crucifix at which he steadfastly gazed.
The two keeper deputies brought up the rear of the
fateful procession. Slowly, the heavy doors swung back, and with
solemn tread and mien, the little procession walked into the
room where the silence of death prevailed. They had but

(01:02:00):
a few steps to take. The chair was directly in
their front. As the leaders parted, the chair stood out
in all its awfulness before the man about to sit
in it and die. Slocum halted at the warden's command,
just on the edge of the rubber mat, which was
there to protect those who were watching his life go out.

(01:02:23):
The doomed man's gaze was riveted on the chair. Then
it wandered to the dangling wire and the closet from
which it was suspended, back to the chair. It came
like a needle to a magnet, and he started as
though he had received a shock from the wire. When
the warden began reading the death warrant. While the reverend
men engaged in silent prayer, the witnesses were grouped to

(01:02:49):
the left of the chair. The scientists stood in front
of the switchboard, watching the current, which they read like
a book, as it flashed in the lamps and through
the recording instruments with an attempt at a smile. Slocum
seated himself in the chair and leaned his head back
against the rubber rest, as though he was simply preparing

(01:03:10):
to be shaved. The forced smile remained on his face,
and his father's creedent and Lynch took up a position
in front of him. He again directed his gaze at
the cross while Conaton began fastening the straps. Slocum's eyes
were clear and he appeared to be in perfect physical condition.

(01:03:30):
He took his eyes from the cross long enough to
aid Deputy Warden content in his desk, and then until
the shield was placed on his face. His lips moved
in prayer as he looked fixedly at the cross. The
straps crossed and recrossed his body, and his legs were
tightly bound to the foot rest. Then his arms were

(01:03:51):
fastened and Slocum could no longer move a muscle. Finally,
an oddly arranged set of straps that bound his chair
in one place position and covered his eyes were put
in place. Now doctors McDonald and Rockwell and Professor Loudey
approached to attach the electrodes. The positive electrode was placed

(01:04:12):
on Slocum's head in the same manner as in the
Kimler execution. The negative electrode was attached to the right leg,
the trousers having been rolled up for this purpose before
Slocomb was bound in the chair. When the electrodes had
been satisfactorily adjusted and the wires attached, the three scientists
glanced at the switchboard and said that the current was

(01:04:33):
steady and registering one thousand, six hundred volts. Doctors McDonald
and Rockwell then stood on either side of the chair.
The other physicians among the witnesses drew near, while the
laymen stood back, as though not sure of their nerves.
The doctors waited with special interest in these preliminaries, and

(01:04:54):
with watch in hand, awaited the signal Warden Durston of
Auburn Prison, and stood alongside Warden Brown and offered suggestions.
All this had taken less time than it has to
tell it. Professor Loudy's hand grasped the handle of the
switch which turned the current into the wires in the

(01:05:14):
electrocutioner's closet. Warden Brown raised his hand and Professor Loudy
turned the switch. Then the Warden tapped on the closet.
The unknown inside gave a quick pull to his rubber
covered lever. The electric fluid was released before the sound
of the tap reached Slocum's ears, and like the lightning flash,

(01:05:36):
it sped through his body. There was not a tremor
of the body as the physician counted the seconds, and
when Professor Loudy turned off the current, Slocum sat rigid
and lifeless in the chair. When the electrodes were removed,
it was discovered that the skull and the flesh of
the leg had been slightly burned, but there was no

(01:05:57):
smell of roasting flesh such as made the Kimbler electrocution
so horrible. The straps were unloosed and the body carried
back into the rear room. Smiler did not hesitate when
told that his hour had come, but when the death
chair appeared before him, he almost fell to the floor.

(01:06:19):
His knees knocked together, and but for the support of
his spiritual advisers, he certainly would have collapsed. Warden Brown
quickly read the death warrant and Smiler was hastily seated
in the chair. His face took on a ghastly Hue,
and Connaton got no assistance from this victim in arranging
the straps. Smiler was bound and the electrodes applied in

(01:06:43):
a much briefer time than Slocum, and in a few
seconds Smiler also was dead. The same slight burning under
the electrodes was noticed, as in Slocum's case. Wood had
been prepared by father's Creeden and Lynch. While Smiler was
going to his death, and he was already he uttered

(01:07:05):
no word. When his time came, he walked to death,
supported by the priest. Wood betrayed no emotion when he
gazed on the chair, but his eyes fixed on the crucifix.
He sat down in the chair diffidently, and his binding
was accomplished so quickly that it was only twenty four
minutes from Smiler's end until death came to him. It

(01:07:28):
was becoming easy to kill men. The witnesses displayed no emotion,
there was nothing to cause nausea, and death came to
its victims so quickly that it was all over before
they realized it. Giugiro at first refused to leave his cell,
but when mister Connaton said, come on, Joe, be a
brave man, he walked out quietly. Two additional keepers marched,

(01:07:52):
one on each side of the man, while the chaplains
followed behind the warden and his deputy. Road did not
seem to comprehend the purpose of the chair and seated
himself without protest. A keeper assisted Conton in binding him,
and the last act was quickly accomplished. The current was

(01:08:13):
allowed to remain in his body about three seconds longer
than the contact with the others. Accordingly, his skull and
leg were strongly marked by the electrodes. Giugiro's body was
taken away. Six bells were struck as a signal to
the electrician in the dynamo room that all was over,
and the witnesses returned to the warden's room. The first

(01:08:45):
great experiment at sing Sing prison with electricity as means
of executing the death sentence upon condemned murderers was made
at daybreak and is said to have been a success
from every point of view. Witnesses assert that their there
was no horror in any of the four instances, similar
to that of the Kimmler case in Auburn prison last year.

(01:09:06):
It is asserted that the four men died without a
struggle and with no indication of physical suffering. When Warden
Durstan of Auburn Prison got on the three ten train
for New York, he said, I saw no part of
the autopsy, and I cannot tell by comparison whether these
executions were more or less successful than our killing of Kimler.

(01:09:30):
I was principally interested in the application of the electrodes
on Kimler. We applied the current to the base of
the spine in the back of the head. In today's
cases the electrodes were placed on the calf of the
right leg and on the forehead. I should say these
fellows died painlessly and instantly with one current. O. M.