The Electric Chair in New York
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NEW YORK PBA TROOPER A Piece of History: The Electric Chair in New York neck would not break as expected. In In any event, it was not uncom• Raymond M. Gibbons, Jr., DDS, FAGD such instances, the victim strangled mon- for the subject's heart to con• Forensic Sciences Unit, NYSP slowly, twisting convulsively for as tinue beating for as long as eight long as 15 minutes before death fi• minutes after the trap had been ROM JUNE 4, 1888, until June nally occurred. As one text reported: sprung. That fact troubled many peo• 1, 1965, the lawful method for ". there were repeated examples of ple who feared that the subject might Fputting capital offenders to the fall failing to snap the recipient's be experiencing unintended suffer• death in New York was the ing. All of this led to a electric chair. In the irrev• search for a swift, painless erent jargon of the prisons and humane alternative to and the press the device the scaffold. was nicknamed Old Dr. Alfred Porter South- Sparky, Yellow Mama and wick, a Buffalo, NY, den• Gruesome Gertie among tist and former engineer on others. At the time this Great Lakes freighters, is method of execution was credited with originating adopted, however, it was the ideal of legal punish• hailed as a humane and ment of death by electric• civilized alternative to ity. "Old Electricity," as he methods it supplanted. was known, was convinced Until that time, hanging that this was a much more had been the most com• humane way of bringing^ mon method of executing swift and painless death to condemned murderers. In criminals convicted of Britain, hanging is believed murder. to have been in use among At his request, New York the Anglo-Saxons at the State Senator McMillan, also time they arrived from of Buffalo, introduced a bill continental Europe. Public in the 1886 Session of the hangings, in fact, persisted State Legislature, creating a in England until 1888. En• commission to provide a glish colonists brought the new death penalty to take custom to North America the place of hanging. In car• where it gained wide rying out its mandate, the currency. new commission researched By the late 19th cen• various methods of execu• tury, considerable public tion used down through the revulsion had developed The electric chair in the execution chamber at Sing Sing (now Ossiningj State centuries and ultimately over hanging in the U.S. Correctional Facility. narrowed the acceptable The reason for this was choices to four: electricity, that while hanging generally worked, neck, leaving the condemned man or prussic acid, the guillotine and the gar- there were appalling instances in woman to dangle from the rope, rote. The commission then solicited which something went wrong. If, for wheezing and kicking for as long as opinions on those four methods from example, the hangman's knot was 15 minutes while slowly strangling to judges, district attorneys, and sheriffs not properly placed, the subject's death." throughout the state. The con- >• WINTER 1995 33 NEW YORK PBA TROOPER sensus was that electricity be adopted young man, he worked for his father On May 18, 1889, Kemmler was as the lawful method of execution. in a slaughterhouse. By age 27, he sentenced to be the first individual to On June 4, 1888, New York Gover• was married, having eloped with a die in the electric chair. His execu• nor David B. Hill signed the law which girl named Tillie Ziegler. However, he tion was delayed by his attorney for a established electrocution as the was horrified on his honeymoon year and a half with appeals. Inven• method of execution in New York when he learned for the first time tor Thomas A. Edison, who objected State. The law took effect on January that his new wife had been married to the use of electricity to execute 1, 1889. From that day on, executions before and never divorced. criminals, financed all of Kemmler's would be done by "electricizing" the The couple lived in rented rooms appeals up to the United States condemned, a method the public was on South Division Street in Buffalo. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court assured would keep the criminal jus• Practically from the beginning, sustained the original verdict. tice system in tune with scientific ad• Kemmler suspected Tilly of infidelity. Kemmler was ultimately sen• vances, besides being swift and pain• Always a moody individual, he tenced to die in the week beginning less and granting the victim a more drank heavily. On the morning of August 4, 1890. merciful end than the hangman's rope. March 27, 1889, he caught Tilly At Auburn Prison, final prepara• The new law established strict going through his pockets looking for tions began. Part of the old convicts' procedures surrounding executions money. He lost control of himself. He mess hall in the basement of the ad• by the new method. Condemned picked up a hatchet and hacked the ministration building was converted prisoners were maintained in solitary unfortunate woman viciously. She into a death chamber, just a short cor• confinement. Upon completion of died the next day in a hospital. ridor away from Kemmler's cell. The sentence, the disposal of the body All New York was shocked by the chair, a square framed, heavy, oaken would be by burial in quick-lime. crime. Kemmler made no attempt to one with a foot rest, had a high, slop• The press was prohibited from pub• escape. He freely admitted what he ing back, a perforated seat and wide lishing details of executions. Three had done. When pressed for a mo• arms. It was fastened to the floor, the state prisons—Auburn, Clinton and tive, he said, "I wanted to kill her and feet being properly insulated. Sing Sing—were designated as places the sooner I hang for it, the better!" Buckles and straps were attached of execution. His statement, of course, indicates to hold the victim securely in place Dr George Fell, a Buffalo physi• that Kemmler did not know that New and two adjustable electrodes were cian, is credited with the design of York State had recently bviilt an elec• added. The entire apparatus consisted the chair and Edwin F. Davis, an elec• tric chair in Auburn Prison for the of a stationary engine, an alternating trician at Auburn Prison, was desig• purpose of executing condemned current dynamo, a voltmeter cali• nated the first official executioner. murderers such as himself. brated from 30 to 2000 volts, an am• Another Buffalo meter, rheostat connection to the and switch. At• electric chair was tached to the the first individ• back of the chair ual who died in was the head it-30-year-old elec-trode which William Kemm• was finally held ler. Contempo• in place by rary accounts of means of a spiral his execution are spring. The body fascinating and electrode was at• give a real flavor tached to the of the public de• lower part of the bate that attend• back of the chair ed the adoption in order to con• of this method of tact the hollow of execution. the sacrum. The electrodes each The son of a consisted of a Philadelphia bell-shaped rub• butcher, Kemm• ber cup about 4 ler had little View of the execution chamber at Sing Sing. Behind the recessed door on the left was the station from inches in diame- schooling. As a which the state's executioner operated the controls. 34 PBATROOPER NEW YORK PBA TROOPER ter with a metal disc inside faced his manner and appearance indicated The muscular rigidity immedi• with a layer of sponge. The lower a state of subdued elation as if grati• ately ceased and was succeeded by electrode had a spiral spring to hold it fied at being the central figure of the one of complete muscular relaxation. in place while a broad strap fastened occasion. [He was apparently] . The body remained motionless and to the back of the chair passed unable to appreciate the gravity of apparently lifeless for approximately around the lower part of the pris• his situation." one minute. Then the chest began a oner's abdomen and rendered the In response to the warden's invi• series of slight spasmodic move• contact secure. The prisoner's head tation to speak, Kemmler said, "Well, ments. The panicky warden sprang was firmly secured by means of I wish everyone good luck and I to the doorway of the room and leather straps which encircled the think I am going to a good place, and shouted, "Turn on the current!" How• forehead and chin and fastened to the the papers has been sayin' lots of ever no current could be applied be• back of the head rest while the chest, stuff about me that ain't so!" cause the dynamo had been shut off! arms and legs were secured by broad With that, he arose, took off his Now it was hastily turned on again. straps attached to the corresponding coat without the least show of emo• Meanwhile Kemmler showed portions of the chain tion or nervousness and took his seat signs of being very much alive. As It was Friday, August 6, 1890, at in the death chair. He calmly submit• the witnesses, by now standing 6:30 a.m. All prisoners were in their ted to the adjustments of the straps around the chair, looked on in horror, cells. The warden later stated that and electrodes. "Don't be in a hurry. his chest moved and he gave a deep from all indications, they had no Warden," he said, "Take your time." groan followed by another.