THE EXECUTION OF Anthony Chebatoris By Aaron J. Veselenak

In 1846 outlawed for murder, becoming the first jurisdiction in the English-speaking world to do so. Why then did a hanging take place in Milan on 8 July 1938?

he scene that unfolded that fateful Wednesday morn- president’s ribs. Instinctively, Macomber grabbed the gun. As ing, September 29, 1937, in the Chemical State Sav- the two men struggled, Chebatoris shot Macomber. Forty-five- ings Bank in Midland, Michigan, had all the intensity, year-old cashier Paul D. Bywater rushed to aid his boss. Cheba- action and drama of a Hollywood gangster flick. The toris shot Bywater, a bullet tearing into his intestines. Realizing Tplayers, however, were not silver-screen bad-boys Jimmy their plan had gone awry, the would-be robbers fled the bank. Cagney, Humphrey Bogart or Edward G. Robinson. Dentist Frank L. Hardy, whose second-floor office was in At approximately 11:30 A.M. two gunmen entered through the mattress store next to the bank, heard the commotion. the front doors of Chemical State Bank. Twenty-eight-year- Grabbing a .35-caliber deer rifle kept oiled and loaded in his old Jack Gracy and thirty-seven-year-old Tony Chebatoris, office for just such an event (bank robberies and holdups both from Detroit, had extensive criminal records. They were occurred regularly in America during the 1930s), Hardy thrust intent on looting the weekly Dow Chemical Corporation pay- his rifle through the window screen and opened fire on Gracy roll then being processed. Gracy wore a hat and overcoat, con- and Chebatoris, who by then were racing down Benson Street cealing a sawed-off shotgun. Chebatoris, wearing a hat and a in their getaway car. Chebatoris was at the wheel. short, blue denim jacket, was armed with a .38-caliber Smith Hardy’s first shot struck the car’s fender; another went & Wesson revolver. through a door; the third passed through the rear window, hit- Weeks before the planned heist, Gracy cased the bank. The ting Chebatoris in the left arm, causing him to lose control. job would be a cinch. The car careened into a parked car on the other side of the The two men, who had met in the state prison in Jackson street. The collision knocked Gracy out the passenger’s-side serving sentences for previous crimes, drove north from Ham- door. A wounded Chebatoris, with rifle in hand, helped his tramck in separate cars. One car was stolen; the other fallen buddy up. Frantically, the men’s eyes searched wildly belonged to an acquaintance of both men. Gracy and Cheba- for the source of the bullets. Spotting a uniformed man stand- toris met near Corunna. They abandoned the second car and ing at the corner, Chebatoris shot from the hip, severely drove together to Midland. wounding fifty-five-year-old truck driver Henry J. Porter of Entering Chemical State Bank, Gracy approached sixty- Bay City. The bandits then intercepted a car driven by a five-year-old bank president Clarence H. Macomber, who was woman with a baby. The woman fled in terror, carrying the standing up front talking to his twenty-two-year-old daughter child. Hardy shot again, trying to hit the gas tank. Gracy and Clair, a bank employee. He jabbed the gun barrel into the Chebatoris fled from the car and continued on foot to a bridge

May/June 1998 35 spanning the Tittabawassee River. They was wanted in Pennsylvania for bank robbery attempted to hijack a Nehil Lumber Com- and felonious assault. He was also suspected of pany truck, but as Gracy stood on the run- crimes in Kentucky. ning board, Hardy, nearly 150 yards away, Forty-eight-year-old Hardy attained hero aimed and squeezed off another round. It status among townsfolk, law enforcement offi- was a direct hit. Sensational accounts of cials and the press for his quick action. It was a the day claimed the back of Gracy’s head role he did not relish. “Don’t make a hero out was blown off. He died instantly. of me in this thing,” he stated. “I like to hunt, Chebatoris ran west along the Pere and I like to play bridge. Today, I’d say I liked Marquette Railroad tracks attempting to bridge better.” The small-town dentist thought pirate two more vehicles. He was appre- for a moment, then added with a twist of irony, hended a few blocks away by several “You know it’s a funny thing, but that parked townsmen and road construction workers car the bandits ran into is owned by Violet Ven- as he sat exhausted in the second car. ner. Her father was the sheriff who got me to Midland County sheriff Ira M. Smith taking my gun to work.” arrived on the scene and placed Cheba- Clarence Macomber was the most fortunate toris under arrest. Anthony Chebatoris of the three gunshot victims. He suffered a mere flesh wound. Bywater and Porter were seriously Federal Bureau of Investigation offi- hurt. Bywater recovered; Porter succumbed to cers arrived at the scene shortly after. It was his wounds on October 11 at Mercy Hospital in clear from the beginning that Chebatoris would Bay City. With his death the charges of bank be charged with a federal, not a state, offense. At approximately robbery and assault were changed to murder, Chebatoris had violated the National Bank Rob- setting the stage for an unusual string of events 11:30 A.M. Anthony bery Act, passed in 1934 in response to the rash in Michigan history. of bank robberies during the Great Depression. Chebatoris and U.S. District Attorney John C. Lehr planned The feds had jurisdiction in any holdup of a Jack Gracy entered to seek the death penalty. Porter’s widow bank that was a member of the Federal Deposit opposed the action and she appeared in U.S. Insurance Corporation or Federal Reserve Sys- through the front District Court on October 19, while a grand tem. Chemical Bank belonged to both. The law door of the Chemical jury deliberated whether to indict Chebatoris also provided for the death penalty in the event for murder. Wearing black, she was accompa- an innocent person was killed. Immediately State Bank intent on nied by her sister, Mrs. John Rosentreter. after the bungled heist, speculation arose that looting the weekly Rosentreter claimed her brother-in-law once Chebatoris might be hanged should one of his wanted Chebatoris spared death in the event he victims die. Dow Chemical died. Dr. H. B. McCrory, who had treated Upon learning of her son’s death, Gracy’s Corporation payroll. Porter, disagreed. He claimed that one of the mother collapsed. She claimed he was a “good last things Porter had said to him was, “It’s too boy” and would never be involved in such an bad one of us [including Bywater] can’t kick act. His record, though, suggested otherwise. off so they can hang the dirty rat.” As a juvenile Gracy was arrested for bicycle On Tuesday, October 26, Chebatoris and auto thefts and escaped from the Boys’ was brought to trial in U.S. District Court Industrial School in Lansing. In 1923 he was in Bay City. Judge Arthur J. Tuttle sent to the state prison for armed robbery. He presided. Tuttle, a distinguished-looking was paroled in 1926 but returned after a second man of sixty-five, had twenty years’ expe- armed robbery. He also spent time at a branch rience on the federal bench. A former U.S. prison in Marquette for planning an escape. congressman, prosecutor Lehr had been Chebatoris, a native of Poland and its own on the congressional committee that jail system, had spent fifteen of the previous drafted the law under which the defendant seventeen years in prison. His troubles began was being tried. He was assisted by John in 1920. As a driver for the Packard Motor Car W. Babcock. Dell H. Thompson, president Company, he robbed a cashier on their way to of the Bay County Bar Association, and the bank. He was sent to prison and then James K. Brooker were appointed to paroled in 1926. He returned to prison after a defend Chebatoris. second robbery and remained there for During the three-day trial the prosecu- repeated offenses that marked most of his life. tion called thirty-four witnesses. The Jack Gracy At the time of his arrest in Midland, Chebatoris defense called none. The case against

36 Michigan History Magazine Tony Chebatoris was solid. The appeal. Chebatoris was told by swarthy, brooding man never took his lawyers at sentencing that he the stand. If there was a gentle, had neither the money nor remorseful side to Chebatoris, the grounds for an appeal, so one jury of seven women and five men was never made. Tuttle also never saw it. He was even reluc- determined that the sentence be tant to discuss the case with his carried out within the walls of attorneys, maintaining a defiant the Federal Detention Farm in attitude toward them as well. Dur- Milan, Michigan, where Cheba- ing the trial he told one of them, “I toris was being held. This caused haven’t a friend in the world. My a stir. In 1846, during a lengthy wife has divorced me. I’d rather revision of the state’s entire die than go back to prison.” penal code, Michigan became While seeking the death the first English-speaking gov- penalty, Lehr made an impas- Scene of the shootout ernment in the world to abolish sioned statement to the jury, call- capital punishment for murder. ing Chebatoris a “brutal, ruthless killer—a sly, The law convicting Chebatoris specified that sneaking human beast. . . . This is no time for states with death penalty statutes were to carry foolish sympathy. You have the responsibility of out the federal sentence within their boundaries. protecting innocent American citizens against Technically, Michigan was a death-penalty state. bandits, gangsters and ruthless beasts.” The Don’t make The same revision of codes in 1846 that struck defense countered that capital punishment was a “ the death penalty for murder left death intact for relic of the Middle Ages and “fast losing favor.” a hero out of me treason. The death penalty for treason was later On Thursday, October 28, the jury returned repealed but reenacted in 1931, during another a guilty verdict and imposed the death penalty. in this thing. I like revision of the state penal code. The obscure law The guilty vote was reached unanimously on had never been used, but Lehr made sure Tuttle the first ballot. It took until the seventh ballot to to hunt, and I like was aware of the provision. decide on the death penalty. According to to play bridge. U.S. Marshal John J. Barc, in charge of the Judge Tuttle, “It was absolutely just, as well as execution, obtained G. Phil Hanna, a sixty- encouraging to the cause of justice and also a Today, I’d say four-year-old farmer from Epworth, , deterrent to the underworld. The verdict for a with seventy-one hangings to his credit, to con- man who takes the life of another man could I like bridge duct the hanging. Sheriff Chester A. Pyle of not have been just with any other penalty than White County, Illinois, would assist. death.” better.” Forty years earlier Hanna launched a per- Chebatoris became the first person in the –Frank L. Hardy sonal crusade to make hangings painless after nation to be sentenced to death under the Bank witnessing a botched one that subjected the Robbery Act. He was the first to face death for condemned to a slow, tortuous strangling. a crime committed in Michigan in nearly a hun- Hanna professed, “It is not a nice thing to see a dred years and the first ever to be sen- man die—or to have a part in executing him. tenced to death by a Michigan jury. My point is that if men are to be put to death, it should be done mercifully. I would rather During the trial Chebatoris was held supervise a hanging and have it done correctly in the Saginaw County Jail. In the early than to attend to my farm chores and read that morning hours of Friday, the condemned another hanging has been bungled by an inex- man, alone in his cell, attempted suicide, perienced sheriff.” Years earlier, he tested slashing his wrists and throat with a rusty weights and distances to determine the proper razor blade. When guards rushed in to distance a man should fall. He also commis- stop him, he fought for the blade. Finally sioned a Missouri firm to make a special rope. disarmed, Chebatoris was taken to a Sag- As the execution date neared, the Chebatoris inaw hospital for stitches. How he case once again became big news. Midland obtained the weapon is not known. County sheriff Ira M. Smith was asked to spring On November 30 Chebatoris was for- the gallows’ trap door. He agreed to the job, in mally sentenced to death by Judge Tuttle. part influenced by the 1935 murder of Midland The execution date was set for July 8, County sheriff’s deputy Earl Martindale. The 1938, allowing seven months for an Frank L. Hardy murderer was “serving a life sentence,” Smith

May/June 1998 37 said. “That amounts to about 12 years in in three respects, namely that the penalty Michigan. Then he’ll be out again. I am glad should be death, that it should be by hang- the public will be assured that Chebatoris will ing, and that it should be within the state never be freed again.” He later added, “I think of Michigan. These last two requirements it is the wish of most of the people of Midland resulted from the fact that Michigan has County that Chebatoris be out of the way per- one statute providing the death penalty by manently, and since they elected me sheriff of hanging. If the sentence had been different the county, I feel it is only a part of my duty to in any one of those three respects, it would see that the death sentence is carried out.” have been unlawful. On June 22, 1938, barely two weeks before I have neither the power nor the incli- the scheduled hanging, Michigan governor nation to change the sentence. If I did Frank Murphy asked President Franklin D. Roo- have the power to do so, I think it would sevelt to move the execution to another state. be unfair to suggest that the people of a Michigan’s chief executive noted, “There hasn’t neighboring state are less humane than been a hanging in Michigan for 108 years. If this Sheriff Ira M. Smith are the people of our own state of Michi- one is carried out in Michigan, it will be like gan. This federal court is enforcing a fed- turning back the clock of civilization.” Although eral law in Michigan for an offense against the sympathetic to the request, Roosevelt claimed It was United States, committed in Michigan. the law was fairly clear and little could be done “ to prevent the hanging in Michigan. He referred absolutely just. . . . Governor Murphy was outraged and the matter to U.S. Attorney General Homer declared: Cummings. The verdict for a I deplore the fact that this execution is taking The last execution in Michigan had taken man who takes place within our state, where for more than a place in Detroit on September 24, 1830, seven century there hasn’t been a legal execution. It years before Michigan became a state. The the life of another has always seemed to me that Michigan could hanging, just outside the local jail, was quite a man could not take pride in being the first commonwealth on spectacle. The condemned was innkeeper this earth to abolish capital punishment. I don’t Stephen Simmons, a large man found guilty of have been just think it against the interests of the people of beating his wife to death in a drunken rage. this state to oppose its revival by having the Bleachers were built to accommodate the large, with any other federal government come in here, erect a scaf- festive group of spectators gathered around the fold and hang a man by the neck until he is gallows. A band played. However, before the penalty than dead. . . . I think the federal government should trap was sprung, Simmons gave a rousing speech death. have arranged for the execution elsewhere—if before a hushed crowd. He pleaded for mercy ” it was to take place anywhere.” and condemned alcohol. The repentant man –Judge Arthur J. Tuttle ended by singing a hymn. The crowd’s Murphy’s comments led a reporter to ask if emotions were considerably stirred and this wasn’t like asking a neighbor to chloro- after the hanging they tore down the gal- form Murphy’s sick dog in the neighbor’s back lows. The event had a lasting impact on yard. Murphy retorted, “If the neighbor was in Michigan. the habit of chloroforming dogs in his back- Cummings requested that Judge Tuttle yard, one more or less probably wouldn’t rule on Murphy’s request. On Thursday, disturb him.” July 7, the day before the execution, Murphy was correct in that regard. The state Tuttle declared: of Illinois had offered one of its electric chairs to carry out the execution. Frank Sain, warden An able and fearless United States attor- of ’s notorious Cook County Jail, ney fairly presented this case to a quali- claimed, “Our chair is ready for your use any fied jury of five men and seven women, time. We’ll make no charge of course. Always all good citizens of the state of Michigan. glad to oblige a neighbor.” On October 28, 1937, that jury had the Michigan’s rebellious chief executive courage and wisdom to return the just ended the interview with a prophecy, “I verdict which directed that Chebatoris be always have been, and always will be, against punished by death. That just verdict hav- capital punishment. I think the time is not far ing been returned, the law was mandatory Judge Arthur J. Tuttle distant when it will be prohibited in every

38 Michigan History Magazine state in the union.” A few years earlier, as execution. Ryan tried to reason with the belli- governor general of the Philippines, Murphy cose man but to no avail. Bennet warned Ryan commuted the death sentences of three men to that if the matter could not be resolved, he per- life imprisonment. sonally would have to conduct the hanging Chebatoris was oblivious to the political according to regulations. Ryan objected: “No, maneuverings before his scheduled execution sir, I’m against the whole business anyway. We and remained indifferent and hostile. An atheist, haven’t had a hanging here in the state in a hun- he turned away the prison chaplain the day dred years, and the whole institution’s on edge. before his execution, declaring, “You You and the attorney general can have can’t do anything for me.” During his last this job right now.” night, Chebatoris was visited by his for- mer wife, daughter and her baby, son-in- The distressed warden, however, law, sister and two brothers. He ate his came up with a plan. Believing the heartily after rejecting the cus- hangman was too inebriated to know if tomary special one. Conscientious of his friends would be in the darkened socialist doctrine from his extensive read- execution chamber, Ryan told Hanna ings in prison, Chebatoris declared, “I’ll they would be allowed to witness from eat what the other fellows eat.” the back of the room. Satisfied, Hanna Shortly after 5:00 A.M. on Friday, July agreed to carry out the execution. After- 8, 1938, Anthony Chebatoris arrived at ward, when he asked his pals what they the gallows, accompanied by guards and thought of his job, the men complained priest Leo Laige of Ypsilanti. Twenty- they had been prevented from watch- three people were present, including ing. Irate, Hanna berated the warden. police commissioner Henrich A. Pickert Ryan promptly threw the men out the of Detroit, Wayne County sheriff Thomas prison doors. C. Wilcox, U.S. Marshal John J. Barc, Anthony Chebatoris Anthony Chebatoris was one of warden John J. Ryan, five deputy mar- thirty-four men and two women exe- shals, three physicians and three cuted in the twentieth century by the reporters. Dr. Hardy declined an offer to attend. I haven’t a U.S. government. Fifteen were electrocuted, Chebatoris ascended the thirteen steps to the “ twelve were hanged and seven were gassed.The eighteen-foot-tall gallows’ platform ten feet friend in the most famous were Julius and Ethel Rosenberg above the ground. He smiled—some said it world. My wife who were electrocuted at New York’s Sing Sing was a sneer—at Phil Hanna and asked, “Are Prison, on June 19, 1953, for conspiring to you Mr. Hanna?” has divorced me. commit espionage. James Dalhover, also “I am.” imprisoned in Milan with Chebatoris, was elec- “Then I know it will be a good job.” I’d rather die than trocuted in on November 18, 1938. The Guards strapped Chebatoris’s legs and arms last federal execution was at State Peni- as he stood over the trap. At 5:07 A.M. a black go back to tentiary on March 3, 1963, when Victor Feguer hood was placed over his head and the noose prison. was hanged for kidnapping. fastened in place. At 5:08 A.M. Hanna gave the ” Currently, there are eighteen men under sen- command. At 5:21 A.M. Chebatoris was offi- –Anthony Chebatoris tence of death by the federal government. All cially pronounced dead. “It was a dignified are there for murder, most in connection with execution, properly carried out,” proclaimed the drug trade. Oklahoma City bomber Timo- Hanna. Governor Murphy disagreed, calling it thy McVeigh is the best known. Over four hun- “a blot on Michigan’s civilized record.” dred fifty inmates have been executed by state The press never learned that three hours governments since the U.S. Supreme Court’s before the execution, warden John Ryan made 1976 Gregg v. Georgia decision reinstated cap- a frantic phone call to the home of James V. ital punishment. Bennet, director of the United States Bureau of Michigan is one of only twelve states with- Prisons. Hanna and three friends had arrived out the death penalty. drunk, hardly able to walk. He then threatened to abandon his duty and pack up his equipment if his friends were not allowed to witness the Aaron Veselenak, who lives in Rogers City, is a part-time execution. Bennet reminded Ryan that no one political science and history instructor at Alpena Com- but official witnesses were allowed to view the munity College.

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