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Electric Chairs by Gordon Bond f you’ve ever driven up Route 29 into The Death Penalty Trenton, you’ve probably seen the huge The death penalty has been part of I neon letters attached to the Warren Street communal systems of justice for as long as Bridge as its trusses arch off to the left over the there have been written records of them. As Delaware River and on into . Put might be expected, they are largely reserved up in 1935, they declare with an iconic, if for the most egregiously antisocial of acts: perhaps now-ironic pride: murder. That is, the intentional taking of human life not in justifiable self-defense or in TRENTON MAKES–THE WORLD TAKES a state-sanctioned war. Over the years, the list of eligible offenses has been expanded to These days, it might be easy to be puzzled cover a wider array of the sorts of things by such oversized bragging. But the slogan different societies have deemed as taboo reflects how much of the city’s history is behaviors. In cultures where systems of justice indeed steeped in industrial might. Its furnaces operate within perceived moral codes, often kept American troops supplied with iron prescribed by religion, the list has come to also during the Revolution and most people will be encompass sexual transgressions, from rape at least vaguely aware of the Roebling name. and incest to adultery and homosexuality. At its height, Trenton supplied the world with Political systems often incorporate the threat of such things as rubber, wire rope, ceramics and pain of death to protect themselves against even cigars. treason, military desertion or extreme But you might be surprised to learn that insubordination—and, it must be said, to get among the other things Trenton made for the rid of dissidents. world to take were electric chairs. For much of its history, there has often

The Adams Electric Company • Gordon Bond • GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 12 • June 2011 been little practical distinction between advertising what would happen to anyone corporal punishment and capital—if the means else contemplating doing the same thing. of execution happen to make the condemned Growing apace with methods of capital suffer, so be it. Perhaps the most readily punishments was the moral debate over available example of this can be found as the whether vengeance really equaled justice. central iconography of Christianity— Certainly, there is some cathartic if the . Whether the grim satisfaction in seeing simple abstraction of a cross or someone guilty of a terrible a graphic representation of suffer for their deeds. Jesus Christ’s suffering, all Thought for what a are evocative of what victim or their family was a fairly common suffers easily weighs method of capital against sympathy for punishment for the the guilty. However, Roman Empire. While in indulging that not exclusive to the base desire, was the Romans and not society sanctioning it always involving a less “civilized”? cross, per se, all Executions were crucifixion is basically often seen by the affixing someone to a masses as much as structure and leaving entertainment as moral them to hang and die a lesson. It is also slow, painful death. While impossible to quantify perhaps most culturally- how many would-be embedded for the West, murderers were somehow however, crucifixion was deterred from going certainly not the only Crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, by Marco down that path from slow, painful means Palmezzano (Uffizi, Florence), painting ca. 1490 fear of ending up used at the time of being put to death. We dispatching the condemned. Indeed, there is a still debate the value of such capital macabre, if rather creative, list of methods: punishment as a deterrent. burning at the stake, the , That such questions were also on the , , drawing and quartering, minds of people early on is reflected in the slow slicing, disemboweling, , concept of “cruel and unusual punishment.” . That exact phrase goes back at least as far as There were two points to such methods. the English Bill of Rights in 1689, and was One was to indeed punish someone. A quick likely percolating around for some time before. and easy death seemed too good for It would be echoed in the American Bill of someone guilty of murder or treason— Rights and the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. somehow lacking in a sense of “justice.” But Constitution: “Excessive bail shall not be the added bonus was that by doing it out in required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor the open, where the public could see not cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” only the execution itself but the resulting Of course, what exactly defined a corpse, it would be a pretty clear billboard punishment as “cruel and unusual” would be

The Adams Electric Company • Gordon Bond • GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 12 • June 2011 left for the American courts to hash out. being executed by a squad of Roman auxiliary Anything that caused undue suffering, archers back in 228 AD. Firearms made it more humiliation or didn’t fit the crime was the basic likely that well-placed shots could bring death idea—but what about capital quickly enough to be punishment? Some argue it is humane, but here too, there in of itself “cruel and was always the risk of error. unusual” and should be Despite this, a firing squad abolished. But others argued was employed as late as that while the basic idea of 2010 in Utah when the the death penalty was sound, condemned requested it. It it was the means by which it has always been popular was carried out that needed with the military given the to be adjusted. The emotional ready availability of guns on distress between hearing the the battlefield. sentence and it being carried has been a out notwithstanding, the final longtime tool of the act of death should happen to the point of as quickly and painlessly as becoming iconic. Still, it was possible—as “humane” as certainly as vulnerable to possible. human error as any other So began a quest for method. The basic idea of a more civilized, humane ways humane hanging is that the to execute the condemned. person drops quickly and Beheading has been an old the noose snaps the neck, means. A good sharp blade bringing death before the and an accurate swing can, condemned is aware it’s presumably, get the job done happening. But when it goes fast enough that the person wrong, it can be gruesome suffers little. Trouble was, indeed. Too short of a drop however, it was subject to Detail from a painting by Pisanello, and the condemned hangs human error or sloppiness. 1436–1438. there, thrashing about, even There are many examples of wetting themselves until multiple swings being required to the extreme they choked to death. Too long a drop and distress of the condemned. The was could result. Hardly the fast, invented in France as a means of mechanizing painless method that would meet the criteria the process and taking out some of the risk of against “cruel and unusual.” a botched execution. It worked well enough Nevertheless, it remained the primary that France was using it right up to when it means of execution in the right abolished the death penalty altogether in 1981. to the end of the , when a new Still, there were nagging stories—albeit technology seemed to bring an even more anecdotal—of severed heads exhibiting efficient method. It was against this backdrop movements that indicated even a perfect of an odd hybrid of inflicting death but seeking execution wasn’t as immediate as thought. a humane way of killing that a Trenton Firing squads go back to bows and electrician would find himself called upon to arrows—Saint Sebastian is usually depicted as design ’s own .

The Adams Electric Company • Gordon Bond • GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 12 • June 2011 The Electric Chair only a matter of time before someone applied As the 20th century broke, it promised to be this new urbanity to making even the the new age of electricity. Coal-fueled steam distasteful task of execution more humane. had been at the chugging heart of the The story of how that came about tells, albeit industrial revolution in the 1800s and had perhaps a bit apocryphally, how in 1881 a produced wonders enough. But electricity— dentist from Buffalo, NY, Dr. Alfred Southwick, now there was something amazing! It had witnessed an inebriated man accidentally enthralled and taunted humanity since the first electrocute himself by touching a live electric hominid looked up in awe at a lightning storm. generator. It seemed to happen so quickly and The very idea of tapping into that raw power painlessly that it set the good doctor thinking. was even part of the American The tales maintain that, as a dentist, creation myth—Benjamin Franklin he designed a chair—as opposed and his kite remains part of our to a table or other format—because national iconography. As the that’s what he was used to. It was nation was increasingly wrapped built by Harold P. Brown and in a web of wires, practical Arthur Kennelly, both employees of electrical power began powering —Kennelly was the all manner of new appliances or chief engineer at the West Orange improving old ones, offering to facility. Given Edison’s involvement remove the drudgery from with the development of practical everyday life. The 1893 World’s electric power, the light bulb, and Columbian Exhibition at Chicago the famous feud with George dazzled visitors with displays of the Dr. Alfred Southwick Westinghouse over AC or DC, it is then still-novel electric light. As often said that Edison himself came early as 1904, the washing machine was being up with the first electric chair. While the project powered by electricity. In the early days of the certainly progressed with his blessings and 20th century, if it was new, modern and promotional skills, there is no evidence he had progressive, it was electric. any hands-on involvement. But with the That electricity could also be dangerous equipment built, Dr. Southwick lobbied New certainly wasn’t unknown. When he tried to York’s then-Governor, David B. Hill, to make replicate Franklin’s lightening rod experiments the legal means of execution in in 1753, for example, Georg Richmann, a the state in place of hanging. He worked Swedish physicist at the Imperial Court of St. towards that end on the state’s Electrical Death Petersburg, Russia, was killed when he failed Commission between 1888 and 1889 and, on to properly insulate himself. But, so long as January 1, 1889, the first law permitting use of proper safety precautions were followed, it the electric chair in a capital case was passed. could be safe enough. The evolution of the They didn’t have to wait all that long for electrician from amateur experimenter to a their first opportunity to try it out for real professional trade set safety standards and (various unfortunate animals were killed in practices through apprenticeship systems, tests, but no humans). On March 29, 1889, licensing and labor unions. William Kemmler murdered his common-law Electricity, it seemed, was the miracle of wife, Tillie Ziegler, with a hatchet. He was the modern age, one that elevated mankind sentenced to the dubious honor of being the into an ever more civilized state. It was likely first man to die in the electric chair on , 1889 at ’s Auburn Prison. The

The Adams Electric Company • Gordon Bond • GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 12 • June 2011 condemned man took his seat calmly and earned a reputation around Trenton. received 1,000 volts. At first, the doctor The increasingly widespread availability of pronounced him dead, but someone noticed electric power meant there was a reasonable he was still breathing. A second examination trade to be found in installing electric lighting, proved he was still alive and the doctor was particularly on commercial properties. In 1897, said to have called out, “Have the current turned on again, quick—no delay.” The problem was, it took time for the generator to build up again, so if Kemmler was at all conscious, he would have been aware and possibly in some distress for some eight agonizing minutes. The second jolt did the job, but caused blood vessels to burst and bleeding. The flesh around the electrodes singed, producing a smell that led some witnesses to think he had actually caught fire. The next day’s headlines screamed the sensational story of what amounted to a botched execution. later quipped “They would have done better using an axe.” While he perhaps had a point, he was also miffed that the state used the direct current (DC) championed by his rival, Edison. Dr. Southwick, who was present, had a very different reaction, despite the obvious glitches. He was reported as having proclaimed, “There is the culmination of ten Adams installed the new lighting at the Trent Theatre years work and study! We live in a higher civilization from this day.” Carl F. Adams, identified as an electrical engineer and contractor, had been awarded Adams Electrical Company the contract to light the new addition to the In 1907, the New Jersey legislature officially Trenton Fire Clay and Porcelain Company. The outlawed hanging as the preferred means of Trenton Evening Times reported that “[w]hen carrying out executions. Electrocution was to completed there will be about 750 lights of 16- be the method and George O. Osborne, candle power.” He had already installed the Keeper of the in lighting on the existing older building the Trenton found himself in need of an electric previous winter. chair—not exactly an off-the-shelf kind of The next year, he published notice that he item. The most obvious place to begin was moved from 103 East State Street to 16 East calling in an electrician. Carl F. Adams, who State Street, including an office, supply would later be described as a man of department and “first-class repair shop.” By ponderous reserve good nerves and calm 1901, he also had a factory on Hamilton Street, temper of mind, seemed a logical enough manufacturing “the Backus motor fans . . . This choice. Born in 1868, he was the founder of is the only plant of its kind in the city,” Adams Electrical Company and had already according to The Trenton-Evening Times. By

The Adams Electric Company • Gordon Bond • GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 12 • June 2011 1903, he had begun getting jobs for the city of One of the striking electricians, Albert Trenton itself, including wiring an new Hutloff, was short on cash to support his firehouse on Broad Street. family. So, he picked up a small job at a house But the road to that meeting with the on the west side of town for E. M. Fleron, a warden was paved by some rather high profile competitor of Adams.’ This irked Adams as jobs. In 1903 his company was hired to install there was supposed to be an agreement that the electric lighting at the Trent Theatre. But it no contractors would hire the strikers. They was probably a job at the State House the may have been competitors, but giving in to following year that got him the most the labor unions would impact everyone. attention—both good and bad, depending on Fleron, in turn, wasn’t very happy at Adams one’s perspective. It had been noticed that the either and accused him of trying to intimidate chandelier hanging in the rotunda always Hutloff into quitting the extra job. swung, even when it wasn’t windy outside. The Building Trades Council was playing That in of itself wasn’t an issue. But when the for keeps as well. They called a strike for six maintenance people took a closer look, they of their members who had been working for realized that there was nothing in how it was Adams. Five walked off the job but one stayed. constructed to permit the flexibility demanded He was immediately kicked out of the by that natural swinging, causing dangerous organization and they vowed to boycott wear. In other words, it might come crashing Adams’ entirely, throwing their full support down at any moment and people who worked behind the other men who were on strike. in the building after a while learned to walk Adams had intended to become an open shop quickly when they had to cross the rotunda by April 1st, but retaliated by locking out the space. Adams was hired in October of 1904 to union workers in January of 1905. Three take it down and replace it with a modern construction jobs ground to a halt around electric light chandelier. Trenton—at the Second Regiment Armory, the As an aside, local theater-owner I. C. home of C. C. Haven and the Second Mishler, who owned the State Theatre in Presbyterian Church—because of labor unrest Trenton, bought the old chandelier and had it with the Building Trades Council. In the case installed—with safety improvements—at of the armory, it was the presence of a worker another theater he had opened in Altoona, who belonged to the National Association of Pennsylvania. Sadly, it was destroyed as part of Steamfitters, which the American Federation of a huge fire that consumed not only the theater, Labor did not recognize as being legitimate. but an Elks Home and Oliver Robert furniture “All of the large jobs now in course of store, with an estimated $500,000 damages. construction are shunned by labor union men Not that it was all smooth sailing for the because of the Adams matter or the lockout of Adams Electrical Company. Adams was plumbers by the Master Plumbers Union,” frequently at odds with the labor unions reported The Trenton Evening-Times. involved with the electrical trade. Indeed, the This time, management stuck together and State House job was delayed by a dispute with responded in kind. Six electrical contractors the Building Trades Council. Adams had an locked out between twelve and fifteen union eye towards an “open shop”—non-union. Ten electricians as a result of an agreement they union workers walked off the job as a protest had all signed with the Electrical Contractors against the use on non-union labor. This Association to have open shops. This was part would pit Adams against the Council well on of a larger protest by the Manufacturers and into February of 1905. Employers Association against what they saw

The Adams Electric Company • Gordon Bond • GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 12 • June 2011 as the sympathetic strike policy of the Mercer historians identify some twenty-three inventors County Building Trades Association. The irony, of the incandescent light bulb going back to of course, was that the employers were 1802. What Edison did do, however, was to organizing together for their common interests improve upon the design and materials, while in order to protest their workers from doing taking advantage of things (like better vacuum the exact same thing. In any event, this time technology) that were unavailable to earlier Adams wasn’t directly involved researchers. And, he was a since he had locked out union tireless—some might say workers the previous month, shameless—promoter that but the newspaper reports shoved his name out before trace the entire mess back to the public in away few others his initial fight. did. Be that as it may, Edison Not that any of this seems and his employees did have a to have hurt him. Later in 1905, wealth of practical experience he received $262 contract to when it came to understanding install lights for New Jersey the underlying principles of Supreme Court and, the physics and what kinds of following year, he created an equipment would be needed. “elaborate electrical display” at The “power grid” was still new, the State Street Theatre and St. so it wasn’t merely a matter of Mary’s Cathedral as part of the a chair that could be plugged celebrations surrounding the into an existing socket. There silver jubilee of the ordination would be a host of materials of the Rev. Monsignor John H. Martha Place of East Amwell, NJ and equipment needed in Fox. This was a big deal to the became the first woman to be support of the chair proper, community and Adams’ executed by electrocution at Sing plus safety considerations that Sing Prison in New York. participation was duly noted in would protect operators and the papers. witnesses as well as systems By the time New Jersey needed an electric that could be about as failsafe as possible. A chair, Carl F. Adams was an established botched execution—whether from operator businessman who had done other electrical error or mechanical failure—wouldn’t do at all. work for the State Penitentiary before. He was Adams also took a trip to a logical choice. The only problem was that he Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York, to had no experience whatever with such a examine their existing chair—nicknamed with contraption as he was now being asked to macabre humor “.” This was the build. But, he wasn’t about to let that stop him. same chair that executed Martha Place, the first woman executed by electrocution. She was New Jersey’s Electric Chair born Martha Garretson in East Millstone in The obvious place to start for Adams was Somerset County, New Jersey. After a failed right in his own New Jersey backyard—with first marriage, she went to work as a domestic the Wizard of Menlo Park himself. Edison has for widower William Place in Brooklyn, NY. gone down in pop-history as something of a Martha seems to have been jealous of her father to all things electrical, up there with husband’s affection towards his teenage Franklin and his kite. In reality, for example, daughter, Ida. Several times, the police were Edison did not invent the electric light bulb— called to diffuse altercations. On February 7,

The Adams Electric Company • Gordon Bond • GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 12 • June 2011 1898, after yet another apparent argument with for the construction of a “new death building.” Ida, Martha threw acid into the 7 year old girl’s Adams received $1,640 that October for his face, blinding her and then suffocated her to part, with the promise that it would be all death. When William came home that evening, ready to go within six weeks—they had an Martha attacked him with an axe, severely execution scheduled for that December. wounding him, but he was able to crawl away The “death building” was an annex with six and get help. Police found Martha upstairs cells at one end—“”—and the with gas escaping from the burners in an electric chair apparatus at the other. Curiously, apparent suicide attempt. She was convicted of New Jerseyans protested the construction—not the murder of Ida Place and the attempted out of an objection to the death penalty, but murder of William and sentenced to death on disgust at the idea of bringing “the scum of March 20, 1899. other counties brought here [to be] put out of While she wasn’t the first woman to receive existence in the state prison in old historic a death sentence, she would be the first to die Trenton.” in the new electric chair. This novelty The first person to be sent to “the chair”— rekindled debates over the ethics of executing “getting the chair” had entered the American women, no matter how awful their . lexicon—was Saverio DiGiovanni, a 34 year Additionally, this came at a time when old Italian immigrant working at a wool mill in women’s rights advocates were agitating for Raritan. In September of 1907, he had shot and suffrage, adding a perhaps unexpected wrinkle killed Joseph Sansome for motives that were to the “equal rights.” Some seemed to take never clearly established. His trial took two great pleasure in pointing out that if these days and the jury spent just 15 minutes to women wanted to be treated equally in the return a verdict of guilty of first-degree murder. rest of society, so too should they be subject to When the judge, James Bergen, sentenced him the less-desirable equity of . to death by electric chair, DiGiovanni, who The papers seemed to take great pains to spoke little English, didn’t react. It was only describe the plain-looking Martha in when someone interpreted the sentence that unflattering terms—in contrast to the sympathy he broke down. It’s hard to say what brought they showed a more physically attractive him to that pitiful state—or if he would have murderess not long before who was spared. been sentenced to death today. He was There is another aspect of Martha’s story, described as a five-foot five bullnecked man however, that engages historians even today. that had the scars of many other altercations. It Her brother was supposed to have said she is said that his mood changed from boasts that had been struck in the head during a sledding no “electric chair” could kill him to weeping accident when she was 23 and had never been over a wife and baby back in Italy. quite right after that. Could her outbursts of It was a sort of Catch-22—on the one hand, apparent rage—including the last one—have having a long time between sentence and been the result of brain damage? Doctors execution only draws out the agony. But on cleared her as sane and then-Governor the other, time needs to be permitted for Theodore Roosevelt declined clemency. possible appeals. DiGiovanni’s lawyers did Carl Adams gathered his information, indeed appeal, but Governor Edward Stokes researched vendors for the parts and submitted turned it down and set the execution for a bid to the State of New Jersey to build and December 11th. Hence the hurry for Adams to install its first electric chair. In June of 1907, the finish the job. appropriations bill was signed allotting $10,000 The execution took place at 5:57 a.m.

The Adams Electric Company • Gordon Bond • GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 12 • June 2011 without a hitch. DiGiovanni wept and prayed 1927.” What an odd gift for someone you call but offered no resistance. 2,400 volts were “Pickel”! passed through him for a full minute. A second Much of the rest of the collection is jolt was administered as a matter of procedure, paperwork that would be perhaps tedious to make certain he was indeed dead, but were it not for electric chairs. But it witnesses were pretty sure he had died demonstrates how following the successes at instantly. His body was buried in an unmarked New York and New Jersey, state after state that grave at Our Lady of Lourdes Cemetery in had death penalties began to explore passing Hamilton. laws abolishing hanging in favor of Watching it all was Carl F. Adams, proud of electrocution. The Trenton job was not to be a his handiwork. Years later, he would recall one-off project—electric chairs and their how he felt the crime was a revolting one, and apparatus was going to be a new product line that he had “no feelings for a man like that.” for the busy electrical company. George Osborne, Keeper for New Jersey The Adams Electrical Co. Papers State Prison, was pleased enough with Adams’ If one is going to engage in the business of work to recommend him. When E. F. Morgan, making electric chairs, having “no feelings for Superintendent of the penitentiary, a man like that” is a prerequisite. Still, applied to Osborne for guidance in getting an regardless of how one feels about the death electric chair for his state in 1908, Osborne sent penalty, there is still something a tad unsettling him straight to Adams. Just three months after about viewing it through the lens of a business. the first execution in Trenton, Adams was There is a collection of papers from the Adams being asked to submit a bid in Virginia. Electrical Company pertaining to electric chair Perhaps they would have preferred to give the orders in the Special Collections department of contract to someone from their own state, but Rutgers University’s Alexander Library in New it was hard to argue with Adams’ practical Brunswick. They form a strange, yet experience and rave reviews. Evidently, compelling narrative. Perhaps the most Morgan was invited to come and visit the strange—though it is admittedly unclear how it Trenton facility and Adams was shrewd came to be included—is a photo of the last enough to make certain the press knew of this man to be executed in the Middlesex County unusual trip. “On my arrival at my office I find jail by hanging. He is identified as Fred Lang, the copies of the Daily State Gazette,” Morgan “Who shot and killed his niece [illegible] at wrote back to Adams, “with a very Burnhams[?] Corner Bonhamtown, April 20th, complimentary notice of my visit to your city, 1906 by shooting her in the neck.” for which please accept my thanks.” Fred Lang was from South Bethlehem, Schmoozing aside, Adams price evidently also Pennsylvania and he shot his niece, Ms. Gate impressed Virginia, as Morgan was pleased to Gordon, on April 20, 1906 at her home in tell him that the state board charged with Bordentown, NJ. She had rebuffed his awarding it “gave you the contract, and would proposal for marriage. It is difficult to say, but be glad to have you begin work at your earliest the overall-clad young man looks quite convenience.” possibly to be mentally handicapped. The deal cost $3,700 with the terms of 1/3 Whatever the case, it is the remarks cash with the order, 1/3 upon delivery, $500 handwritten, albeit not completely legible, in when machine is ready for operation and the pencil on the back that are most strange: balance after first execution. That last bit “From M. Yuro[?] To My Dear Friend (‘Pickel’) caused Adams a small grief when by August

The Adams Electric Company • Gordon Bond • GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 12 • June 2011 28, 1908, he wrote to Morgan, “I expected to not make any charge to you for the reason that be called to Richmond before this time by you, we want you to feel perfectly satisfied in every but apparently there are no one as yet to pay respect and be successful with our apparatus. the death penalty in the Electric Chair. Kindly We also appreciate the very kind interest let me know if you can, when I may expect a that you have taken in our equipment and check for the balance. You thought that it therefore feel that it is no more than is would not be necessary for me to wait until right that we should take care of you in you had a man. I have waited for some time every detail.” and as the money would be very acceptable If nothing else, he took care of his just now, I trust that you will speak to your customers and kept up a good reputation. The board about it and see if they cannot let me market, of course, was still rather confined, so have the balance. I assure you, whether you one displeased client could spell ruin. Each pay me now or later, I will be on hand when success fed another. When, on April 13, 1910, the first man goes off.” he wrote to the State Penitentiary of Frankfort, On September 1, 1908, Morgan replied that , “[f]rom current reports we notice he had “placed your letter before my Board on that you [sic] state has passed a law substituting yesterday for their consideration. They electrocution for hanging as the mode of declined to issue check, because it is such a inflicting the death penalty,” he could refer short time before we will have an execution.” them to both Osborne in Trenton and Morgan Adams would have to wait until October 13th in Virginia for honest testimonials of “it’s for an execution and to be paid the rest. successful workings.” Then, when Osborne Evidently, it all went off without any heard that Pennsylvania’s House of problems. By March 27, 1909, Morgan reported Representatives were “contemplating to Adams that “[w]e have five subjects for the installation of electrocution plants,” he wrote a electric chair to be executed the same day, letter of introduction for Adams to Justice April 30th. Please quote me price on extra Robert A. Balfour in Philadelphia on February helmet and leg electrode complete, and 2 extra 3, 1911, telling how “Mr. Adams, installed the helmet sponges.” electrocution plant in this State in 1907, and we Morgan then makes mention of a have had 17 , all being successful “problem” he had: “It is possible that you are in every respect. I have referred him to you, not familiar with all the types of negro heads and no doubt he will be able to give you and consequently it has not occurred to you valuable suggestions.” that there could be such wide departures from In effect, clients became salesmen—when the normal shape, therefore I suggest that if it a warden somewhere needed information on can be done, that the helmets be made so as how to get an electric chair, they would, to be flexible to some extent at least. Our last naturally enough, write to fellow wardens who experience demonstrated the necessity for had experience with them. And, if they were such an arrangement, as the current dried out indeed pleased with Adams’ service and the sponge on each side of the head (which products, they would send them in his was pyramidal in shape) and showed itself direction. Further, existing clients provided in sparks.” “showrooms” where he could invite Adams replied, “ . . . we will make an extra prospective customers to see an actual helmet of a design which will be more flexible installation for themselves. On February 10, in order to meet your special requirements in 1912, for example, Adams wrote to Horace E. the execution of negro criminals . . . We will Flack of Maryland’s Department of Legislative

The Adams Electric Company • Gordon Bond • GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 12 • June 2011 Reference (who was another Osborne resistance box with iron doors; one special referral), inviting him to Trenton where “I resistance box; one controlling rheostatic machine could then show you the Plant in all it’s [sic] with iron enclosure; one testing lamp board; two head electrodes; two leg electrodes; two sets of details and have a test prepared giving sponges; one set of leather straps; duplicate line of practically a reproduction of the actual work high tension lead cables from switch board to done by the machine.” service entrance with two double throw switches, Unfortunately for Adams, not every state distance within hundred foot; one high tension floor contemplating electrocution always followed box and mast arm with electrode connections and lamp sockets; duplicate set of high tension through. Flack responded how the porcelain fuse blocks and fuses. Supervision of first Representative who introduced the bill to electrocution. Price Twenty Eight Hundred Dollars.” switch over “seems to think that the bill will hardly become a law at the present session.” He assured the Penitentiary The shift from hanging to electrocution and the architects of their new “death house,” often came in the middle of a normal flow of Todd & Benson, “I use only the best of jurisprudence that was still sentencing people materials obtainable and the finest to die irrespective of the methods to be workmanship so there is no possible chance of employed. This placed a degree of stress on a break down unless someone should Carl Adams—and gives terrible literacy to the deliberately damage it.” term “deadline.” For if Adams failed to deliver This was the start of a series of on his contract on time, it would do more than correspondence by Adams and his company be bad for his business—it would drag out the with the various vendors for the parts he pending death of someone thus condemned would need. He used many local, Trenton and, with them, the very notion of “cruel and suppliers. On May 12, 1912, for example, he unusual.” It was a pressure Adams evidently sent a letter to the Trenton Pattern Works for keenly felt and frequently passed along to wooden chair and platform, asking that it be vendors, with earnest entreaties to swiftness. made like the one they evidentially also made The most well-documented installation for his Virginia job. “The most important point found in the Rutgers’ files is for South Carolia, is that you have it ready by June 1,” he told showing the process from order to execution. them. But he added “I have contracted personally with the State of South Carolina for South Carolina the installation of electric chair so as not to get “We accept your propersition [sic] of April, into complications with the present troubles of 22d, 1912, and agree to pay you 40 per cent on the Adams Electric Company, therefore I will the delivery at the S. C. Penitentiary of the personally pay you for this work just as soon Electric Chair and other necessary equipments as you have it ready.” He doesn’t elaborate on and 40 per cent when installed and the “present troubles,” but if he was writing a successfully tested and the balance 20 per cent personal check, it seems to hint at financial. after the first execution.” Adams had a deadline But more on this later. of June 1, 1912 to complete the installation, The Trenton Pattern Works replied that pending an expected execution. they would “quote . . . on the chair and What he had proposed was: platform of solid oak finished dark in natural wood and furnished with polished bronze Will furnish erected complete one electrocuting plant as follows—One electric chair with high trimmings . . . made in the very best manner tension platform; one switch board and one testing with solid oak seat perforated but you to

The Adams Electric Company • Gordon Bond • GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 12 • June 2011 furnish all straps . . . for the sum of seventy five dozen condensers came from Bausch & Lomb dollars.” Optical Co., Rochester, NY; the Macallen The straps would come from Joseph M. Company of Boston supplied “insulated Middleton, whose letterhead advertises him as joints.” a “Manufacturer and Dealer in Harness, Horse Two vendors in particular, however, had Clothing, Robes, Trunks and Valises” at No. 8 him nervous about making his deadline. He North Warren Street, Trenton. In his order, had ordering a bunch of parts from dated May 16, 1912, Adams had Middleton Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing supply: Company: a 3,450 volt, primary, 2,000 volt secondary, 40 cycle, single phase, Type S 2 ankle straps 3/16” x 20” long transformer for $185; type D oil switch, double 2 forearm 3/16” x 25” pole, double throw; 2 type D oil switches; 4 1 body 3/16” x 4’ 6” plug switches, mountings and faceplates; type 1 chest strap 3/16” x 3’ 6” S lightning arresters for 3,500 volts AC, etc. 1 head nose strap When it came to how he was going to pay for all this, Adams was very particular: “Regarding He ordered rubber parts from Joseph the payment for this material if you will send Stokes Rubber Co. and steel parts from me your invoice for same by return mail I will Barbour Bros. Iron and Steel, both of Trenton. forward you my certified check in payment for Additionally, there were a number of details in same at once, with the distinct understanding, an electric chair set-up that needed to be however, that said check is not to be used until attended to. He ordered six square yards of you are ready to make delivery of the material, 1/4” thick “Corrugated Rubber Matting for use said delivery to be positively made within the around switchboard” from the New Jersey time agreed upon between ourselves.” Cloth Company of Trenton (and with offices in A Mr. Lyon of Westinghouse’s Detail & New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Supply Division wrote back that he had “taken Washington D.C.). That would have been to the matter of credit up a little further and we provide insulation for the operator. Horace E. regret to advise that we will be unable to Fine Company, General Engravers, at 19 East accept your order without cash in full for same State Street, Trenton, was hired to engrave the or certified check. We are bringing this matter labels on the plates to be for the switchboard. to your attention so that no delay will occur He seems to have used local sources where should you feel in need of the apparatus upon possible, but the apparatus was created out of which we quoted you while in the office.” parts from a variety of vendors in the Two days later, he sent them a check, “with northeast. In the case of the insulated cables, the distinct understanding that it is not to be he asked for quotes from the National India deposited until you send shipping memo for Rubber Company of Church Street in New the above material.” These were critical parts York City, B. Latham & Company of Broadway that would hold up construction and Adams’ and Murray Street, New York City as well as frustration shows through when he added, from the old Trenton industrialists, John A. “Now will you please ship this material Roebling’s Sons Co. For many of the electrical immediately so that there is no further delay.” components, he turned to Keystone Electrical Adams had sent them a check for $97.74— Instrument Company, over in Philadelphia. he had built in his own 5% discount for American Transformer Company, 153 Miller payment up front. Evidently, Westinghouse St., Newark, supplied the transformers; a never agreed to that. One can imagine Adams

The Adams Electric Company • Gordon Bond • GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 12 • June 2011 annoyance when he received his check back I receive this material at once and I would with the letter stating, “We regret that we are request that you follow this matter up at once unable to accept your check insofar as you and see that this material is forwarded without have deducted 5% for spot cash, also with the further delay. It has delayed the job restriction in not allowing us to deposit same considerably now and is causing considerable at the time of entering order . . . we can only annoyance by the delay.” enter this order upon receipt of certified check How firm that June 1st deadline really was covering full amount of $104.68 without any is suspect. Adams seems to have built in extra restrictions.” time before the first execution—and it was a Indeed, Adams comes across in his letters good thing. Parts were out of stock, and as somewhat dictatorial—he tells rather than Westinghouse sent what they could piecemeal. asks. Whether he just assumed Westinghouse When they arrived, some were broken and would extend to him what he considered a Adams wrote back as late as June 26th that standard business practice or was trying to slip replacements had to be shipped. one by them is uncertain. But he was The classic image of an electrocution obviously frustrated with how it was handled, involves the dramatic “throwing of the switch.” writing back, “I trust that you did not delay In fact, there was no such switch with Adams’ getting out this material while all the writing installations. A rheostat was dialed up, was taking place, as you know how important increasing the current. Getting that critical it is for me to have this material, therefore piece of equipment, however, proved an please follow the matter up immediately and additional headache for Adams. On May 21, get it down to me without any further delay . . . 1912, Ward Leonard Electric Co. of Bronxville, As to placing the restrictions on using of the NY, informed him, “Please note that we cannot check, this was simply done at the time for the make up the variable electrocution rheostat in purpose of having you make a special effort to the time allowed—that is, we cannot make get the shipping bill for me at the quickest delivery of the complete machine by June 1st, possible time. As far as the checks are but we can supply the resistance units concerned, if it is any help at all to the complete with mounting rods and segments.” Westinghouse Co. to use the money before In other words, while they couldn’t send a shipping the stuff I have no objection complete unit, they could send all the parts whatsoever to your making use of the money and diagrams so Adams’ electricians could . . . It also seems rather peculiar way of doing assemble it themselves. Adams received the business to return a certified check. Why didn’t parts, but not the diagram that would show you keep it and have us send you an how to assemble it all! “In further reference to additional check. I suppose, though, that you this matter,” Adams wrote back when he got fellow have to do everything just so according the parts that he “wish[ed] to state that your Mr. to red tape otherwise you cannot do any Waller and Mr. Kemp both promised that you business. Now please, Mr. Lyon, as a personal would send me the shop drawing of the favor to me, see that I get this material variable rheostat and also a chart of the units at once.” according to their steps so that I can give to my This exchange took place in May of 1912— shop man to assist him in the assembling of far too close for comfort for an apparent June these units.” He remained also in need of 1st deadline! When, by June 4th, he still did not another small but critical detail—a brass have the items from Westinghouse, he wrote faceplate with arrows showing which way to them, “Now, it is of the utmost importance that turn the knob “to raise and lower voltage.”

The Adams Electric Company • Gordon Bond • GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 12 • June 2011 It wasn’t until June 7th that they sent him a deadline, given that the client wasn’t ready to “complete drilling template and wiring begin actual installation until near the end of diagram for your electrocution rheostat,” with July. Adams always had men on-site to the suggestion that they lay the bits and pieces supervise not only the installation, but also the out first to make sure everything will fit training of staff in the use of the thing. And, he properly before actually drilling. would always be on hand to witness the first Part of the problem was that while Ward execution in his chair. had done the rheostat for the Trenton job, they While Adams appears to have designed couldn’t find the template and had to recreate much of the equipment himself (probably it. Aside from noting that several tubes had based on what he had learned from Edison or been broken in shipping or were missing from observed at Sing Sing), he did find at least one the order, Adams informed them, “I also wish improvement thanks to an independent to let you know that your sketch is not just inventor. N. K. White, of Virginia, had sent him right but I’ll excuse you for getting it wrong, as a diagram of a new and improved electrode he it is a hard lay-out.” He could afford, perhaps had some up with, to which Adams replied in to be charitable since his men discovered the a February 10, 1910 letter, “[y]our scheme is mistakes beforehand by comparing it to the first-class and is no doubt a big improvement template they had for Trenton. over the electrodes which we furnished with Still, the delay caused by the broken and our chair equipment. Ever since we had the missing parts was vexing: “Please do not delay accident with the leg electrode at your first the sending of the units as I have everything execution [in Virginia] when the strap broke off ready to ship now and just need these few I have been experimenting with some different tubes to complete both the Test Resistance and things . . .” the Variable Rheostat. I want to ship the outfit By the time Adams was making the chair by next Tuesday’s steamer so will you be so for South Carolina, White has patented his good as to send these tubes by express at once design and Adams agreed to use them, paying so that I won’t be held up.” Ward sent the $75 for the rights and suggesting he might needed parts at no charge. want to buy the patent outright for future use. He wrote Ward on June 21st, but had White liked that idea and offered that if he did, evidently begun shipping some of the he wouldn’t charge Adams for his using his equipment earlier. Records show materials electrodes on the South Carolina chair. But being sent via the Trenton Transportation Adams demurred in a June 25, 1912 letter, Company to Philadelphia on June 10th and “Now Captain I will not allow this generosity; then on to Columbia, South Carolina on the this has nothing to do with the future business Seaboard Air Line Railway. Given this was and I shall send you a check for $75.00 as 1912, “Air Line” was a descriptive rather than agreed we soon as I get my first payment from literal term. By July 1st, they informed Adams Columbia [South Carolina].” that “Shipment arrived at Columbia, S.C. morning of June 17th, consignees did not take Hard Times? delivery of same until the 24th. The reason that Success continued to attract customers, the Penitentiary people did not accept delivery though it didn’t always pan out. In April of before that date, was on account of them not 1913, a year following South Carolina, The B- being prepared to install same at the time of R Electric & Telephone Mfg. Co. of Kansas arrival.” City, Missouri wrote to Adams. They had been Clearly, June 1st had been a self-imposed contracted to install an electrocution system for

The Adams Electric Company • Gordon Bond • GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 12 • June 2011 “one of the Western Panitentiaries [sic]” and as many contracts as he won. Perhaps the most wanted to get the equipment from him. The interesting solicitation came from outside the catch was that they wanted to be the ones to United States. perform the actual installation. Adams’ reply In January of 1913, The Colonial Stores, demonstrates how confident he was in his identified on their letterhead as “Purveyors and own performance by that point. Provision Suppliers, Canton, China” wrote to “Replying I would say that I sell my equipment the warden of Virginia’s State Penitentiary in only direct and install it myself on account of Richmond: giving an absolute guarantee with each outfit that I build . . . I also wish to mention that my We have written to the firm of Montgomery Ward & Electrocuting Apparatus is fully protected and Co. Chicago for information regarding an apparatus is today the only equipment in use that can be for executing criminals by electricity, same as those operated from an exterior source of power used in some of the states of America. They have referred us to write you for information regarding supply such as is furnished by electrical light this machine. We have a customer an high official or power companies . . . I devoted a great deal in Canton who wishes to adopt the same method of time and study to the designing of this for this part of the country . . . I will be ever so apparatus realizing that for the work which it thankful for your kind assistance. Wishing you is intended the machine must be absolutely greater prosperity in 1913 than you have ever had before, I remain yours sincerely, J. A. Cheong, sure in it’s work, safe in it’s handling, and Manager. positively fool-proof. That I have succeeded in these points is demonstrated by the successful operation of the several Plants in use in the The only thing odder than writing to various States.” Montgomery Ward for an electric chair was In the end, he would turn down the that the question came from a company that contract. But this demonstrates that here were also specialized in “canned goods, dried fruits, competitors out for the business in an wines, spirits, tobaccos and cigars.” admittedly shrinking market that was never all Adams replied: “The price for this machine that large to begin with. Back in 1910, when he will be cash $3000.00, delivered on board ship was corresponding with White about his at New York.” Added to that would be the patent, Adams enquired if White had heard costs for man to go to oversee installations at anything about the state of the electric chair in $5/day while in transit and then $10/day North Carolina, since Virginia was closer than during the actual work. He estimated it would New Jersey. A local competitor had beaten him all take a month from the receipt of the order out on the contract and he was annoyed that to ship and then another two weeks to install. they had not returned the photographs he had There were, of course, technical questions sent with his proposal. But more than loss of about the electrical systems overseas: business, it seemed to justify his self-pride: It will be necessary to receive current delivered “From newspaper reports I found that they are from an exterior source. In the United States here still trying to get the outfit to work and that one this current is furnished by the Light and Power of the criminals has already had five respites Companies and is of not less and the chair is still inoperative.” than 2200 volts; it is immaterial to us how much It is difficult to say how successful Adams higher the voltage may be and whether it is one, two, or three phase, or what the cycle ratio may be, really was with all this. Based on the balance as all we need to know from you when ordering the of enquiries and shipping information in the machine is what the primary line voltage is, what Rutgers collection, it would appear that he lost the cycle is, and what the phase is, and then we will

The Adams Electric Company • Gordon Bond • GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 12 • June 2011 build the machine to suit your current conditions was selling electric cars—a hundred years . . . Should you decide to purchase one of these before it again became popular! And, among machines for your Government you will be the agents he assured he would still fill orders restricted from placing a higher price on this machine than what is a legitimate profit in for was Adams in Trenton. consistency with your business. And I reserve the In February, he listed for sale a 1906 Ford right to pass upon this price before the offer is touring car “in first class condition” for $375. made. Ordinarily a profit of 20 to 25% should be Evidently, Adams picked up extra money sufficient for you to handle the proposition.” renting out garage space. The “Automobiles and Automobilists” column—something of a As there is no paperwork indicating an social column for automobile owners—in the order in the collection, it may be that this job April 17, 1909 Trenton Evening Times never came about—nor did ones in , mentioned “The Adams garage is storing Dr. Kentucky or Maryland. But there are other Charles P. Britton’s new Premier touring car” clues as to financial troubles. Adams declared and seemed to consider it newsworthy that bankruptcy in 1900; he was dealing personally “The Adams Electrical Company’s garage with suppliers on the South Carolina order and recently installed twenty-four lockers.” Further, a May 21, 1913 letter asking the status of the E.H. Savage received his new Regal, Model A, Arkansas death penalty law was from an A. Lee 30-horsepower touring car from Adams Grover, identified on the letterhead as a Electrical Company and David S. Swift, local successor to Adams Electric Company. taxicab manager, was having four cars “cared Even before that, Adams seemed to be for by the Adams Electrical Company.” playing a game—he would order parts and Adams was also a family man. He and his vendors would invoice Adams Electrical wife, Catherine H. Aller Adams, had a son, two Company, but he would write back, saying it daughters and eight grandchildren. He was was really ordered by A. Lee Grover and that active in local affairs around Trenton. At the if they would resubmit the bill to that name, it same time he was responding to solicitations would be paid immediately. While it isn’t for electric chairs from China, his company completely clear it was what he was about, this also did the “electrical effects” at the Mohawk has the appearance of being a stalling tactic to Canoe Club’s “George Washington dance” and delay having to pay the bill. was a founding member and historian for the Trenton Tadpoles Club. Cars and Blue Laws While he obviously had no moral Obviously, electric chairs wasn’t Adams’ compunction to capital punishment, he was of sole business. He seems to have been involved a different mind when it came to watching a with another new marvel of the modern age— motion picture show on the Sabbath. So-called the automobile. According to a column, “blue laws” in Trenton outlawed movie “Among the Automobilists” in the January 1, theaters being open on Sundays. Given that for 1909 Trenton Evening Times, H. A. Anderson, most of the working class folks who were their an automaker from Detroit, had sold out all his most likely patrons, that was their only day off, stock at a New York car show and had to order this was a threat to their livelihoods. So, on his factory to make more for an upcoming August 28, 1921—a Sunday—they all agreed to show in Chicago. That it was the first time he remain open in defiance of the law. It was a had had such a success was noteworthy for lucrative protest—some 18,000 tickets were him, but for history it is worth noting that he said to have been sold!

The Adams Electric Company • Gordon Bond • GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 12 • June 2011 The Interchurch Federation League, the Atlantic Ocean in 1927 and the public was however, saw this open defiance as nothing more acutely aghast when his and wife Ann less than a war on religion. Leading the Morrow Lindbergh’s 18-month old son went resistance State Quartermaster General C. missing and was then found dead near their Edward Murray. Among those who reminded East Amwell, New Jersey home. When, two Trentonians of the Fourth Commandment— years later, German immigrant Bruno Richard Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy— Hauptmann was arrested and charged with the was the Rev. John H. Fox at St. Mary’s crime, he was considered “The Most Hated Cathedral, the same Rev. Fox whose Silver Man In The World.” From January 2 to Jubilee Adams’ company helped to celebrate February 13, 1935, Hauptmann was put on in 1905 with electric light shows. Trenton’s Public Safety Commissioner, George LaBarre, begged to disagree, not seeing it as something the city ought to get involved in. He instructed the chief of police to leave unmolested any theater owner open on a Sunday by virtue of a technicality—the law specifically forbade “dancing” and “fiddling”— neither of which tended to go on in a movie house. General Murray was Bruno , convicted of the Lindbergh baby kidnapping, furious—if the city’s died in Adams’ chair in Trenton. officials would not enforce the law, his “police” would. He had Sheriff trial—“The Trial of the Century” according to Walter Firth on his side and they handed out the media. Throughout, he vehemently deputy’s badges to some sixty-five members protested he was innocent and the case of the Inter-Church Federation League— remains one that is questioned and rehashed including Carl F. Adams. They would bust by historians. But, in the end, he was the movie theaters that were open, arresting convicted and sentenced to die in the electric the owners and sending the disappointed chair. In Charles Adams’ electric chair. sinning patrons home. At the time, a newspaper sought out the man who built the instrument that would end Trial of the Century the life of that “Most Hated Man In The World.” In 1932, New Jersey and the nation— The copy in the Rutgers collection is indeed the world—was gripped by the tragic unidentified, but told how, “[t]he impending kidnapping and murder of tans-Atlantic hero execution of Bruno Richard Hauptmann Charles A. Lindbergh’s son, Charles, Jr. The means little to the man who built the electric boyish Lindbergh had captured imaginations chair for the New Jersey State Prison.” He was with his historic first solo airplane flight across described as “a middle-aged electrician, living

The Adams Electric Company • Gordon Bond • GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 12 • June 2011 at 1122 Riverside Avenue, [and as] a man of Potter Stewart was concerned, the death ponderous reserve good nerves and calm penalty was “cruel and unusual in the same temper of mind . . . [The chair] worked was that being struck by lightning is cruel and perfectly the first time on the night of usual.” December 11, 1907, as is as good as new now New Jersey’s last execution took place in after 116 executions. That, he feels, is 1963, when Ralph Hudson died in Adams’ something.” electric chair for stabbing his estranged wife to death. The post-Gregg v. period is The End of Capital Punishment in NJ called the “Modern Era” of capital punishment New Jersey held capital punishment laws and, in 2007, New Jersey became the first state on the books until a moratorium imposed by to abolish the death penalty completely. the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972. In Furman v. Georgia, by a 5-4 Conclusion decision, the court considered it Death came for Carl F. Adams cruel and unusual punishment at age 78 on October 13, 1946 and, therefore, unconstitutional. after an illness that confined Justices William Brennan, Jr. him to Mercer Hospital. (born in Newark, NJ) and Regardless of whatever else he Thurgood Marshall both had done in his life, he was still considered capital punishment identified first and foremost in unconstitutional in all cases, his obituary as the state’s while others had a problem with “Death Chair Builder.” It seems how it was being handed out on he probably wouldn’t have the state level, pointing to minded the distinction. As of arbitrariness and racial bias. then, his creation had taken the Guidelines were imposed and lives of 134 men. the states told to revise their His chair from Trenton now sentencing processes. When sits in the New Jersey State capital convictions occurred in Police Museum. While there is Georgia, , , North no longer a death penalty in the Carolina and , they Garden State at the moment, were appealed to the U.S. Carl F. Adams other states and the nation as a Supreme Court with a view to whole still struggle with the abolish the death penalty once and for all on moral and legal questioned it embodies, giving the grounds of being fundamentally cruel and a macabre twist to Trenton’s industrial heritage. unusual. Consolidated with Gregg v. Georgia in 1976, the Court instead upheld the penalty so long as certain broad guidelines were adopted Thanks to Ronald Becker at Rutgers Special by the state legislatures into their capital Collections for alerting me to the Adams papers! sentencing processes. These were designed to remove some of the discretion that led to UPDATE: In March 2021, Virginia became the abuse, permit appellate review and allow the first Southern state to abolish the death judge or jury to take character and record of penalty. The electric chair Adams made for the defendants into account. As far as Justice them in 1908 was last used in 2013.

The Adams Electric Company • Gordon Bond • GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 12 • June 2011