How is execution carried out in the electric chair? "The dead man is still breathing!"

The electric chair is no longer considered the most humane way to carry out death sentences.

The unsuccessful attempt to execute the American sentenced to death Romel Brum in September 2009 caused quite a stir. big wave opponents' protests death penalty. It's no joke - they failed to give him a lethal injection 18 times in a row. However, this is far from an isolated case: from time to time, the technologies for carrying out death sentences fail, and as a result, some convicts die in terrible agony. Pravo.Ru talks about the most resonant cases from American practice.

Romel Broom: failed execution attempt

Romel Broome, convicted in 1984 of the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl (documents in this case are available), had been waiting for the execution of a death sentence for almost 25 years. All this time he spent in a prison in Lucasville, Ohio. Time X for him came at 14.00 on September 15, 2009 - on this day, the doctors were supposed to give the criminal a lethal injection.

The forensic doctors tried to give Broom an injection at exactly the right time. However, they did not succeed: instead of a vein, the needle hit the muscle. Several subsequent attempts also did not bring results: the veins on the hands of the convict seemed to have disappeared. The needle of the syringe broke, and Broom's hands literally began to swell before his eyes. The 53-year-old criminal screamed in pain.

The nurses who came to the rescue tried to remove the tumors with wet compresses, while the doctors continued to try to give an injection. The execution lasted over two hours. Broom began to writhe in pain. His swollen hands were punctured, but death still did not come. The prison authorities were forced to stop the execution and appeal to the governor of the state. He appointed a reprieve.

Cases like this have repeatedly ignited a public discussion about the permissibility of the death penalty and the technique of its execution. However, not all suicide bombers, whose cases spurred debate, were "lucky" like Broom. The vast majority of them died, if not on the first, then on the second attempt.

Willy Francis: you can be executed twice

The last person to appear twice before the executioners before Broome was 17-year-old African American Willie Francis. A court in Louisiana sentenced him to the electric chair for killing his employer. Human rights activists began to protest even at the stage of consideration of the case: they were embarrassed that the court dealing with this crime consisted entirely of white Americans. However, the protests had no effect: Francis was sentenced to death.

When the convict was put on an electric chair and the current was turned on, death did not occur. "Take off your hood, let me breathe! I'm alive!" shouted Francis. The execution was stopped. Despite the fact that human rights activists tried to use the incident to overturn the sentence (some even referred to "providence that does not allow the innocent to die"), a year later, Francis again sat on the electric chair: Supreme Court decided that the repeated procedure was not contrary to the constitution. The second time everything went without a hitch.

The electric chair did not always justify the hopes for a humane execution

In 1889, the state of New York passed a law according to which the execution of criminals should be carried out only in the electric chair. Under pressure from the public, the authorities recognized that death by electric discharge was much more humane than the gallows used hitherto. But the first execution new technology brought the convict even greater torment than death in a loop: William Kemmler, who was executed on August 6, 1890, convulsed for several minutes. Death did not come immediately, because the guards did not calculate the voltage. As a result, more than twenty witnesses were forced to watch as Kemmler was literally roasted alive. The journalists who were present at the execution wrote that the new "death machine" should be improved, otherwise unpleasant incidents in the future are inevitable.

But even modern technologies executions in the electric chair do not guarantee failures. In April 1983, during the execution of John Evans in Alabama, there was a malfunction with the electrodes. The convict died in the electric chair only on the third attempt, when the entire room where the execution took place was saturated with the smell of burning flesh. A few years later, the authorities of the city of Atmore in the same Alabama needed to give an electric shock twice in order to kill Horace Franklin Dunkins. "Terrible execution" lasted a full 19 minutes, wrote The New York Times.

Allen Lee Davis: "the man tortured to death by the citizens of Florida"

The real scandal caused the execution of Allen Lee Davis in 1999 in Florida. The offender weighed 130 kilograms, and his lawyer warned the authorities that death in the electric chair for a person of this weight could turn into torture. And so it happened: in the photographs of the execution of Davis, employees of the US Supreme Court saw "a man who was tortured to death by the citizens of Florida." According to witnesses, during the execution, Davis screamed loudly in pain, and blood gushed from his chest. The photo clearly shows that the face of the criminal turned blue, and the body was very swollen.

From the electric chair to lethal injections

Today, only Nebraska executes in the US in the electric chair. Other American states have been killing criminals by lethal injection since the late 1980s. It is generally accepted that this is a more humane way. However, the risk that the last minutes of the life of the executed person will become the most painful for him also exists when using injections. Painkillers, which are injected into the condemned at the same time as lethal injection, lasts no more than 15 minutes, and after the administration of the correct dose of a lethal drug, at least 9 minutes pass until the moment of death. However, the real time limits of these "no more" and "at least" depend on individual characteristics organism, and it is impossible to exclude the possibility of death after the effect of painkillers stops.

But while the United States, unlike European countries, are not going to remove the death penalty from the arsenal of punishments. As for the second attempt to execute Romel Brum, it is not yet clear whether there will be one. On the one hand, there are voices against, however, on the other hand, in 1946, in the case of Willie Francis, American justice already answered the question of whether it is possible to execute twice.

At the end of the 19th century, Thomas Edison invented the incandescent lamp, which was a truly great invention that made it possible to use electricity to light cities ...

A dentist in Buffalo, New York named Albert Southwick thought that electricity could be used in his medical practice as a pain reliever.
One day, Southwick saw one of the Buffalo residents touch the exposed wires of an electric generator at the city's power plant and die, Southwick thought, almost instantly and painlessly.
This incident led him to the idea that the execution using electricity could replace hanging as a more humane and quick punishment.
First, Southwick spoke with the head of the Society for the Protection of Animals from Cruelty, Colonel Rockwell, suggesting the use of electricity to get rid of unwanted animals instead of drowning them (a method traditionally used).
Rockwell liked this idea.

In 1882, Southwick began experimenting on animals, publishing his results in scientific papers.
Southwick then showed the results to his influential friend, Senator David McMillan. Southwick stated that the main advantage of electrocution was that it was painless and quick.

Macmillan was committed to retaining the death penalty; he was attracted by this idea as an argument against the abolition of the death penalty, because this type of execution cannot be called cruel and inhumane, therefore, supporters of the abolition of the death penalty will lose their most compelling arguments.
Macmillan relayed what he heard to New York Governor David Bennett Hill.

In 1886, the "Law for the establishment of a commission to investigate and present an opinion on the most humane and acceptable method of carrying out the death sentence" is adopted.
The commission included Southwick, Judge Matthew Hale and politician Eluridge Gerry.
The conclusion of the commission, set out on ninety-five pages of the report, was as follows: best method The execution of the death sentence is an execution using electricity.
The report recommended that the state replace hanging with the new kind executions.
Governor Hill signs the law on June 5, 1888, which was to take effect on January 1, 1889, and begin a new, humane punishment in the state of New York.

It remained to decide the question concerning the apparatus for carrying out the sentence and the question of what type of electric current should be used: direct or alternating.
It is worth considering the history associated with alternating and direct currents. How do they differ, and which current is more suitable for execution?
Long before the invention of Thomas Edison, scientists from different countries worked on this subject, but no one managed to use electricity in everyday life. Edison put into practice the theory developed before him.
Edison's first power station was built in 1879; almost immediately, representatives from different US cities went to the scientist.
Edison's DC system had its difficulties. Direct current flows in one direction. Direct current supply is not possible over a long distance, it was necessary to build power plants, even to provide electricity to a medium-sized city.

The way out was found by the Croatian scientist Nikola Tesla. He developed the idea of using alternating current.
Alternating current can change direction several times per second, creating a magnetic field without losing electrical voltage.
AC voltage can be stepped up and down using transformers.
High voltage current can be transmitted over long distances with little loss, and then, through a step-down transformer, bring electricity to consumers.
Some cities used an alternating current system (but not designed by Tesla), and this system attracted investors.

One such investor was George Westinghouse, famous for his invention of the airbrake.
Westinghouse intended to make the use of AC profitable, but Edison's DC technology was more popular at the time. Tesla worked for Edison, but he did not pay attention to his developments, and Tesla quit.
He soon patented his ideas and was able to demonstrate them in action.
In 1888, Westinghouse bought forty patents from Tesla, and within a few years over a hundred cities were using the alternating current system. Edison's enterprise began to lose ground. It became obvious that the AC system would replace the DC system.
However, Edison did not believe this. In 1887, he began to discredit the Westinghouse system by requiring his employees to collect information on deaths caused by alternating current, in the hope of proving that his system was safer for the public.

The battle of the titans, as this story is sometimes called, began when the question arose about the type of current that was to be used in the death penalty apparatus. Edison did not want his invention to be associated with death, he wanted alternating current to be used in the death penalty machine.

On June 5, 1888, the New York Evening Post published a letter from Harold Brown that warned of the dangers of alternating current. This letter caused an alarmed reaction in the society. In the 1870s, Brown was an employee of Edison, and it can be assumed that this letter was registered. In 1888, Brown conducted a series of experiments on animals, demonstrating the destructive power of alternating current. Two second-hand alternators were used in the experiments, since Westinghouse refused to sell his generators. Experiments were carried out on several dozen dogs, cats, and two horses.

The speech of the respected scientist Thomas Edison before the commission on the decision of the method of execution produced vivid impression. The legendary inventor convinced everyone present that death with the use of electricity is painless and quick, of course, in the case of using alternating current. The commission had the option of introducing execution by lethal injection.
Lethal injection is considered more humane than the electric chair. In the 20th century, almost all states that have the death penalty began to use it.

Maybe many would not suffer in the electric chair if there was no competition between campaigns or persuasive speech Edison before the commission, although the main question was that execution by lethal injection should be carried out with the help of doctors or by the doctors themselves, which is impossible for obvious reasons.

The first execution took place on January 1, 1889.
A few decades after this event, this "unit" was called the Westinghouse chair or "Westinghoused".

The next executions took place in the spring of 1891.
Four were executed for different crimes. The method of execution has been adjusted. The generator has become more powerful, the wires are thicker. The second electrode was connected not to the spine, but to the arm.
These executions went more smoothly, and new method was accepted by public opinion.
The first "tester" of innovation was a killer named Kemmsler. For obvious reasons, he could not describe his feelings, but the witnesses of the execution noted that 15-20 seconds after the first discharge, the criminal was still alive.
I had to turn on the current of a higher voltage and for more long time. For a long time and painfully, the “experiment” was brought “to the end”. This execution caused a lot of protests from the American and world community.

And the technology of killing with the help of an electric chair is as follows: the offender is seated on a chair, tied to it with leather straps and securing the wrists, ankles, hips and chest. Two copper electrodes are fixed on the body, one on the leg, the skin under it is usually shaved for better current conduction, and the second is applied to the shaved crown. Typically, the electrodes are lubricated with a special gel to improve current conduction and reduce skin burning. An opaque mask is put on the face.

The executioner presses the switch button on the control panel, giving the first discharge with a voltage of 1700 - 2400 volts and a duration of 30 - 60 seconds. The time is set on the timer in advance, and the current is turned off automatically. After 2 discharges, the doctor examines the body of the offender, who may not have been killed by previous discharges. Death occurs as a result of cardiac arrest and respiratory paralysis.

However, modern executors have come to the conclusion that the passage of current through the brain does not cause instantaneous cardiac arrest ( clinical death), but only prolongs the torment. Now criminals are cut and electrodes are inserted into the left shoulder and right thigh, so that the discharge passes right through the aorta and heart.

Although all methods of execution are more or less cruel, the electric chair is characterized by frequent and tragic malfunctions that cause additional suffering for the convicted person, especially in cases where the equipment is old and needs to be repaired.

All this led to the fact that, under the influence of the famous American human rights activist Leo Jones, the electric chair was recognized as a "cruel, inapplicable" punishment, contrary to the US Constitution.

Electric chair

Electric shock is not as severe as the sword and guillotine, but it creates a feeling of painful uncertainty about the moment of death. Photo "Sigma".

Sphere expansion industrial applications electricity in the 19th century should have led by itself to the idea that the power of electricity provides new, "progressive" possibilities of killing.

The first electric current generator in the United States was demonstrated in New York in 1882. Eight years later, in 1890, electricity was already taking its first steps as a legal technical means executions.

The electric chair, one of the most controversial killing tools, questioned even by supporters of the death penalty, was born out of an economic and industrial war between two rival companies that fought for supremacy. different types current: alternating and constant.

The building of Saint Quentin Prison, which houses the electric chair. American Department of Corrections Archives. Qty. Monestier.

It all started in New York City in 1882, when the inventor of the electric light bulb and phonograph, Thomas Edison, opened his first power station on Pearl Street to light commercial and Finance center cities.

Four years later, in March 1886, engineer George Westinghouse, the inventor of the air brake, bought up several patents and founded his electric company. It will illuminate the entire city of Great Barrington.

With this, the confrontation between the two technological concepts began ... Thomas Edison produces and supplies direct current, and George Westinghouse - alternating current, which leads to irreconcilable rivalry between the two largest scientists of our era.

George Westinghouse's alternating current was soon found to be more efficient and - more importantly - more cost-effective than Thomas Edison's direct current. And the stakes are high: serving the residential and industrial sectors of the entire American continent.

Gradually, Thomas Edison begins to lose ground in the market, many of his technical and sales specialists move to a competitor's company. Edison, urged on by the shareholders, decides to act and launches a major press campaign to discredit AC, presenting it as extremely dangerous. Edison's calculation is simple: by impressing readers that alternating current is associated with a mortal risk, to push them to use direct current for domestic needs.

Population outrage

At the instigation of Edison, a certain Harold Brown - the actual inventor of the electric chair (1888) - writes a long article in the New York Evening Post about the dangers of alternating current, in which he accuses entrepreneurs and industrialists of putting their own financial interests ahead of safety consumers. George Westinghouse answers him through the newspaper, he refutes the accusations, emphasizing that Harold Brown does not have technical qualifications to make such statements. Defending his case, Harold Brown openly enters into cooperation with Thomas Edison and uses his laboratories for a series of tests. He even undertakes a tour of the country with a peculiar performance in which dogs, cats, monkeys and even horses are electrocuted in front of representatives local authorities, journalists and entrepreneurs. In an effort to prove that constant electricity Thomas Edison, more suited to domestic and industrial applications, shows a number: Animals that survive 1,000 volts DC with less than 300 volts AC die.

An autopsy showed that the brain of the executed man resembled a "burnt cupcake." Engraving. Private Col.

Harold Brown ended his trip to Columbia with a nationwide press conference, where he invited not only journalists from all over the country, but also great amount professional electricians: in front of the assembled crowd, he electrocuted a dog weighing 38 kg, thus demonstrating, as he thought, the danger of alternating current, and solemnly declared: "Alternating current is suitable only for the destruction of dogs in receivers and cattle in the slaughterhouse." In the end, he made a dubious joke, adding: "Or for the execution of those sentenced to death."

Chronicle of electrocution

Electric shock theoretically proceeds as a continuous automatic cycle for two minutes. When the executioner applies a current of 1900-2500 volts - depending on the model of the chair used - it gets on the copper wires of the contact plate of the helmet, from which the convict should instantly lose consciousness and no longer feel pain.

The two-minute cycle is subdivided into 8 consecutive series of 5 and 25 seconds.

- The current strength ranges from 5 to 15 amperes. When the apparatus is turned on, the convict usually jerks forward sharply, and if he were not securely strapped to the chair, he would be thrown several meters away.

- According to numerous stories of direct witnesses, during the first cycle, losing consciousness, the convict completely loses control over muscle activity. He urinates and defecates. He often vomits blood and bites his tongue.

- During the second cycle, blood bubbles out of his nose.

- From the third to the fifth cycle, the body temperature rises above 100 degrees, the skin acquires a purple hue. Fibrillation and paralysis of the airways occur.

- On the seventh and eighth cycles "burns out" circulatory system brain, and often the eyes pop out of their sockets. The top of the head becomes black with a bright pink border.

For the execution of the condemned, a suit is sewn to order. As underwear, tight shorts made of cotton jersey with elasticated waist and hips and an absorbent pad are issued.

Persons present at the execution:

- the director of the prison, who gives the order to "turn on the current";

- the officer responsible for the execution, who, together with two or three guards, prepares the convict and puts him on a chair;

- an electrician who connects the cables and electrodes and monitors the technical side of the execution;

- a doctor certifying the death of the convict;

- an executioner appointed by the court, who carries out the execution, hidden from prying eyes;

- officials, including a representative of the state governor;

- accredited journalists and lawyers of the convict;

- persons indicated by the convict himself.

Pamphlets are handed out to witnesses of the execution, which detail the procedure for killing.

Official witnesses and journalists are required to remain silent during the entire procedure. They are in a glass room. Thanks to the acoustic system, guests can hear everything that happens around the electric chair.

A direct telephone line is installed between the state governor's office and the room where the "chair" is located in case last minute adjournment decision will be made.

Among the most famous executed in the electric chair: Sacco and Vanzetti (1927); Bruno Hauptmann (1935), kidnapped the child of the famous American aviator Lindbergh; Ethel and Julius Rosenberg (1953), accused of espionage.

Execution of Liz Place, the first woman to be electrocuted in 1899 in New York State. Private Col.

History reference

In November 1990, 2,151 US convicts were awaiting execution, 600 of them in the electric chair.

Executed in the electric chair a large number of minors. Last execution teen took place on October 10, 1984 in South Carolina.

Of the 28 minors who were in the "corridor of death" in 1989, 11 were sentenced to the electric chair.

The record for the number of convicts awaiting execution by electric shock belongs to Florida: 315 people as of July 1992, 35% of them blacks. Then come Pennsylvania with 113 convicts, Georgia with 105, Tennessee with 69 and Virginia with 38.

The two electric chairs most frequently used by convicts over the past sixty years are at Ridesvilk (Georgia, 300 executions) and Rayford (Florida, 196 executions).

Many of the electric chairs in use in the US were supplied by Westinghouse, others by local electricians, and one by the prisoners themselves.

The Miami Herald published in 1988 administration-confirmed figures showing that Florida had spent $57 million on electrocutions since 1976. This figure includes the cost of staying on death row in prison, the cost of appeal procedures. total amount The state's cost per person sentenced to the electric chair was estimated at $3.17 million, six times the cost of a forty-year prison sentence.

A similar study of convicts in Tennessee cites a figure of $3-5 million per convict. In New York State, a 1982 study published that, on average, a criminal process followed by an appeal procedure costs about $1.8 million, or twice as much as a person's lifetime allowance.

The electric chair itself cost thirty thousand dollars in 1966.

The hidden meaning of the “performances” of Harold Brown did not escape the group of legislators in the state of New York, where a special commission created by the governor was working on the invention of a method of execution more humane than hanging. AT recent times several very brutal executions which caused outrage among the masses. In particular, the unsuccessful hanging of one convict: his spine remained intact, and the man swayed on a rope for twenty minutes, being in a clear mind, and died, choking on saliva. In addition, the press often reported on accidents when electric shock caused quick death no obvious bodily injury.

In 1881, the death of Samuel Smith of Buffalo, New York was widely reported in the press, his death was described as quick and painless, and this planted in the minds of many figures the idea that it was electric shock that could be the desired method of execution.

From 1883 to 1888, about 250 accidents were recorded with fatal due to electric shock.

First electric chair

An ardent abolitionist, Thomas Edison hoped to destroy a competitor, testifying before the commission that death by electric shock occurs quickly and painlessly. Provided, of course, that Westinghouse alternating current is used.

Perhaps electricity will finally make the death penalty technically perfect and impeccable from the point of view of humanity. Edison's DC exploitation company is about to strike the decisive blow. She imports from Thailand half a dozen orangutans, large apes the size of a man, who are killed by alternating current as a warning to legislators. This sinister ceremony is said to have prompted them to become more familiar with the "wonderful world of electricity". Doctors interviewed are favorable, arguing that electric shock will lead to instant death due to cardiac arrest and paralysis of the respiratory apparatus. The U.S. Supreme Court debates and concludes that given type execution does not contradict the eight amendments to the constitution, which prohibits "cruel and inhuman punishments."

On June 4, 1889, New York state legalizes electrocution, instructing the state medical service to settle the technical details. Soon, of course, Harold Brown is called. He resumes a series of animal tests at Edison Laboratories and concludes that the execution should be carried out with a current of 300 volts for 15 seconds.

The first discharge is the most powerful, then the voltage is gradually reduced, and at the end it is again increased to a maximum.

Harold Brown designs the first electric chair in history. He is assisted by Dr. George Fell of Buffalo. Harold Brown and Thomas Edison considered their goal achieved: Westinghouse's alternating current would soon become known as the "execution current", the "inevitable death current".

George Westinghouse sues over the scientific validity of Harold Brown's tests, emphasizing that this Edison employee has one goal: to frighten the public by convincing them that alternating current is dangerous in the home.

Despite the lack of consensus, an ordinance signed by the Chief of Corrections, Harold Brown, is allowed to install his electric chair at Auburn State Prison. He is determined to do everything to make the chair associated with the name of a competitor, and makes an attempt to buy three powerful generators from Westinghouse's firm. As you might guess, they refuse him there. Thomas Edison again steps in and arranges with Thomson Houston Electric to purchase for him, through a Boston dealer in used electrical apparatus, the above-mentioned generators.

Organs for sale

In the People's Republic of China, the authorities have found a way to profit from crime: those sentenced to death serve as an "organ bank" for transplants.

In the early 1980s, Chinese officials decided that the organs of the executed could be used as a source of foreign exchange earnings. Thus, the Chinese, through the mediation of doctors working in Hong Kong, who supply them with Western clients, have become famous in the field of kidney transplants.

One responsible person in China, whose words were published in June 1991 by Puen magazine, cited a figure of 1,000 transplants per year since 1990. And that's just the data on the kidneys. The number of transplants of other organs is not known, but we are probably talking about very significant numbers.

Considering that about 1,000 official executions take place in China every year (in fact, many more), it is understandable why Chinese officials are pleased to note "that China is the only country in the world that has a surplus of organs."

There is only one step left before the commissioned execution, which the Chinese authorities may have already taken, given a pamphlet circulating in Hong Kong touting the value for money of Nanjing's communist hospitals: francs". “The kidney comes from a living donor,” the brochure clarifies. In 1992, Taiwan's justice minister, Liu Yu Wen, declared that all those sentenced to death in his country should voluntarily donate their organs to the state.

The first offender chosen for probation " modern method” execution - or for “induction of an electric current into the body”, to follow the official wording - was called Francis Kemmeler. He was sentenced to death for hacking a man with an axe. George Westinghouse hires lawyers for him to appeal to the Supreme Court, arguing that electrocution is unconstitutional, cruel, and inhuman.

A court hearing is scheduled, where Harold Brown and Thomas Edison are summoned, who once again confirm that death from alternating current occurs quickly and painlessly. Both swear that their position has nothing to do with financial interests. Francis Kemmeler's lawyers are denied an appeal.

On April 6, 1890, Francis Kemmeler was led into the execution room of Auburn Prison. It was 6 hours 30 minutes. He was shaved and stripped down to his underpants. “Take your time and do everything right,” he tells the director of the prison. A few minutes later, he asks that the electrode attached to the helmet be tightened.

About forty people attended his execution, half of those invited were doctors and physicists.

The public, startled but curious, had twenty minutes to inspect the execution instrument before the condemned man was brought in.

The execution of Francis Kemmeler - the first executed in the electric chair. 1890 The execution lasted 17 minutes and caused a wave of protests around the world. Engraving. Private count

A room behind glass, from where witnesses and journalists monitor the execution. Archives of the Louisina Department of Corrections. Qty. Monestier.

Judicial errors

Many famous mathematicians of the 19th century, including Laplace, Cournot and Poisson, tried to determine, on the basis of the theory of probability, the proportion of erroneous and justified sentences. Thus, Poisson carefully analyzed the French criminal procedure. According to the famous scientist, the mathematical probability of miscarriage of justice in France is 1 in 257 convictions. highest measure punishment. Professors Hugo Bedo and Michael Radele proved that in the 20th century in the United States, 349 innocent people were convicted of crimes punishable by death. 23 of them were executed. This data takes into account only those cases when the true killer was found and judicial authorities admitted their mistake.

The American Civil Liberties Association says 25 cases.

It was a wide and heavy wooden chair, behind which was a control panel with three huge levers.

Two thick four-meter electric wires stretched from the panel, to which pre-wetted electrodes were connected.

The convict was tied to a chair, a metal helmet was put on his head. An electrode was attached to the helmet. The second electrode - long and flat - was pressed to the back with a belt. After checking everything for the last time, they gave the first discharge of 300 volts, which lasted 17 seconds. Having received a blow, Kemmeler began to convulse, nearly knocking over his chair. Officials noted that henceforth the chair should be fixed to the floor.

Kemmeler was still alive. Then they gave me a second grade. The body of the condemned turned red and began to char, emitting a strong smell and yellowish smoke, which covered the witness stand. Three minutes later the power was turned off.

Oh God! The man seemed to be still alive. The current was turned on again, as a result, "a tiny blue light swept up and down his back."

Finally, the condemned man died. An autopsy showed that the brain of the executed man became like a “burnt cupcake”, the blood in the head coagulated and turned black, and the back was completely charred. Both doctors officially stated that the convict did not suffer.

Part of American society applauded the new invention as "a step forward on the path to higher civilization" and "the triumph of science and humanism over barbarism and atrocity." Others were outraged after reading the horrifying stories in the press. When a serious morning newspaper headlined its article "Kemmeler Westenghausen", Thomas Edison thought that his victory was not far off.

The Medical Commission and the state deputies found themselves in a very difficult position after the unsuccessful execution of Kemmeler. Harold Brown and Thomas Edison were required to improve the technical aspect of subsequent executions.

The electrodes were first attached to the head and back, then to the head and calf muscle. At the suggestion of Thomas Edison, they tried to attach them to the palms. The seven executions carried out in this way were horrendous. Some convicts who could not be executed immediately died only when the location of the electrodes was changed, returning to the head-leg option.

execution juvenile delinquents

In the 1980s, juvenile offenders were executed in eight countries: Bangladesh, Barbados, Iraq, Iran, Nigeria, Rwanda, Pakistan, and the United States. In the 1990s, 72 countries specifically stipulated in their legislation that a criminal under the age of 18 could not be sentenced to death.

Between 1974 and 1991, 92 juvenile delinquents, including 4 girls, were sentenced to death in the United States.

In 1989, the US Supreme Court ruled that it was not against the constitution to execute 16-year-old criminals.

Of the 37 US states that have the death penalty in their laws, 26 have it applicable to offenders under the age of 18: Idaho, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Washington, Wyoming, Vermont, Virginia, South Dakota, Delaware, Georgia, Indiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Florida.

Of the 26 states in which the death penalty is applicable to minors, ell there is no clearly defined age limit: Idaho, Arizona, Vermont, Washington, Wyoming, South Dakota, Delaware, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Florida. At 15, the lower age limit is less than 18:

- Montana: 12 years old.

- Mississippi: 13 years.

- Alabama, Missouri, Utah: 14 years.

- Arkansas, Louisiana, Virginia: 15 years.

- Indiana, Kentucky, Nevada: 16 years old.

- North Carolina, Georgia, New Hampshire, Texas: 17 years.

According to research by Professor Victor Streib of the University of Cleveland, between 1600 and 1991, 286 juvenile delinquents, including 9 girls, were legally executed in the United States for crimes committed as minors. Twelve of them were under 14 at the time of the crime, three were 12, and one was 10 years old. Most juveniles were executed in the 20th century - 190 out of 286 executions took place after 1905.

The youngest person to be executed in the 20th century was Fortune Fergusson, who was hanged in 1927 at the age of 16 for a rape he committed at 13.

Two sixteen-year-old suicide bombers. USA. 1959 Photo "Keyston".

First woman to be electrocuted

The first woman to be electrocuted was named Liz Place. She was put to death in 1899 in the state of New York for the murder of her daughter-in-law and husband. The sentenced woman was warned about the method of execution a few hours before the execution and was transported to the Sing Sing men's prison, at that time the only one in the state where there was an electric chair.

The press reported that the victim showed the highest degree of mental courage. She sat down in the electric chair without hesitation and allowed herself to be bound without a single word. But this time, the execution was not up to the mark. As the press wrote, "she did not die from the first discharge of 1700 volts, although it lasted forty seconds." Witnesses saw how her lips moved between the first and second discharges: she was praying. The spectacle was so terrifying that the confessor could not bear it and turned away. After the second discharge, the blackened, half-charred body was finally removed from the chair. The electrodes stuck to the body, after the second discharge, the head began to “roast”. The journalist concluded: The last word in the improvement of the execution process has not yet been said, since death does not occur instantly, as one would like.

Indeed, like all novelties, electrocution presented some problems that needed to be “finished”.

According to many, these problems have not disappeared to this day. But, despite the unreliability of this method of execution, electric shock began to be used more and more often. In 1906, more than a hundred criminals sat on a chair, which by that time had been awarded with many nicknames that are still used in the underworld.

The abolitionists, whose outrage grew over the years, were told that since 1905 there had been about 500 accidental electric shocks a year in the country and that the unfortunate people died absolutely painlessly. Since the first execution by electric shock, which took place in 1890, each subsequent one has become an occasion for long and serious disputes among specialists.

What is the "ideal voltage" really? 1350 volts at the beginning of the execution looks rather weak. So how much: 1750? 1900? 2000? 2500? What are the limits of current fluctuations: 7.5-10 amperes, 15 or 20? Is it necessary to take into account the weight of the convict? Heart size? Health status?

Today, medicine admits that some individuals tolerate electric shock better. In the period between the world wars, there was an opinion that these were people of small stature, anemic and almost consumptive. It was even believed that one should not neglect such factors as temperature environment and the last meal menu.

Execution in 1933 of Zangara, murderer of the mayor of Chicago. Qty. Monestier.

It is easier to kill a person with an electric shock when a discharge of 10,000 or 20,000 volts, from 50 to 100 amperes, passes through the body. Then he will die instantly, but the corpse will be so disfigured that there will be little left of it at all. However, Judeo-Christian morality requires respect for the body, and justice requires at least a minimum of decency, and the difficulty was to find a tension that could kill at once without causing visible bodily harm. Despite the existing technical problems, Americans at the beginning of the 20th century were by and large quite satisfied with the incomparable scientific achievement which was an electric shock. They praised his virtues so much that many countries sent competent observers to the United States. So, in 1905, Kaiser Wilhelm II sent the famous criminologist Boris Fressdenthal to the United States to observe the execution procedure and express his opinion on the introduction of this method of killing into the German criminal code.

Boris Fressdantal was not attracted by the new method of execution. He wrote: “Electrical shock is not as cruel as the sword and guillotine we use, but one serious reproach can be made to this method - uncertainty, painful uncertainty, regarding the exact moment of death. Has it really happened or is it just an appearance? How much time exactly elapses between the application of the current and the loss of consciousness? In his conclusion, he categorically rejects the introduction in Germany this method, citing the technical imperfection of the execution.

In 1950, the British Royal Commission, which conducted a study of the methods of the death penalty, made a similar conclusion. Recall that in many US states from this method refused, of the twenty-three states that applied it in 1967, only fourteen remained by the end of the 20th century, in others they preferred to be executed by hanging, gas chamber or shooting, and since 1977 - by lethal injection.

Only the Philippines and Taiwan used the electric chair for a while, but then returned to shooting.

Over the 20th century, a lot of terrible evidence of executions in the electric chair has accumulated. Kurt Rossa, referring to the testimony of Congressman and Senator Emmanuel Teller, describes one failed execution that took place in 1926. A woman named Judo was executed in the electric chair. “The toggle switch was turned on, the current went. The woman arched her back in her chair, but did not lose consciousness. The body was thrown from side to side ... The executioner changed the power of the current and again gave a discharge. Discharge after discharge passed through the body of the convict, but she did not lose consciousness and remained alive. Then they gave 2000 volts. An eternity passed, my eyes were still sparkling, the prosecutor made a sign to the executioner to turn off the current ... The unfortunate woman was still alive.

She was taken to the prison medical unit, and the director of the prison, under pressure from witnesses and journalists, called the governor to ask for a pardon. He objected that there was no document allowing him to make such a decision. An hour later, the convict was returned to the execution room, where this time she died from the first discharge.

Deadly performances

Since the early 1980s, there has been an increase in the number of countries carrying out public executions, often broadcast on radio and television.

States addicted to this grim spectacle include: Angola, Cameroon, United Arab Emirates, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Mozambique, Pakistan, Uganda, North Yemen, Somalia, Liberia, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan and China as part of a national anti-crime campaign.

Most often, such executions, which gathered thousands of spectators, were execution and hanging. In 1992, 27 people were publicly hanged in Afghanistan; in Saudi Arabia 66 people were beheaded.

In 1928 Joseph Lang, an executioner state prison Columbus (Ohio), testifies: “The first discharge of 1150 volts was not fatal, the heart was beating smoothly. And the second one didn't work. Then the voltage was tripled. 3,000 volts. A bright flame engulfed the body shaking in convulsions, and the execution hall was filled with the smell of fried meat ... However, the cause of death was not the actual electric shock in the narrow sense of the word, but the burning of the body. In 1941, after an electrocution in New York, the chaplain of Sing Sing prison wrote the following: “One might have thought that these were burns from lying too long in the bright sun, the whole body was swollen, acquiring a dark red color.”

In 1946, another witness would state: Blood vessels puffed up so that they were torn apart ... The steam enveloped the head and bare knees, the latter acquired a black-and-blue color. Lips turned black, foam came out of the mouth.

The performers were most afraid of the possibility of breakage. In the first quarter of the 20th century, the machine was tested on a large piece of meat. Later, the law determined the mandatory presence of a qualified electrician during the entire execution. In the event of a power failure, he was responsible for the immediate connection of the electric chair to the diesel generator installed in almost all "death rooms".

1900 volts and 7.5 amps: the perfect combination for the kill. Private count

The American court chronicles mention an accident that occurred in 1938 in the Huntsville prison (Texas), when the convict was already put on a chair. The chair could not be turned on for several hours, and all this time the convict repeated: “Pardon! Pardon! It's God's will!" As a result, the execution was postponed for three days, despite thousands of demonstrators who rallied outside the prison building in defense of the convict. Do not think that age-old practice has brought clear improvements in the process of electric shock.

Another failure occurred in July 1989 during the execution of Horace Dunkens in Alabama. Due to a wiring defect, the first discharge did not kill the convict. It took the electricians about ten minutes to fix the problem, and all the while the heart of Dunkens, tied to a chair, was beating furiously. His death was announced nineteen minutes after the first discharge.

In December 1984, the New York Times published an article describing the execution of Alpha Otis Stephen, which took place in a Georgia prison. The convict resisted electric discharges for a long time: “The first lasted two minutes, but did not kill him, for the next two he continued to fight and resist. After that, the doctors examined him and declared that he was still alive.

Then he was given an additional discharge of the same duration as the first. But the witnesses of the execution saw that he was still breathing.” The newspaper clarifies: "In six minutes - the time allotted for cooling the body so that the doctors can examine it - the convict took another twenty-three breaths."

Complete technical defeat

Many experts today believe that electrocution has been a complete fiasco. Of course, many convicts die, so to speak, “normally”, but there are also many who depart to another world only at the cost of unbearable suffering.

In 1983 in Alabama, thirty-three-year-old John Louis Evans died after only three shocks of thirty seconds and 1900 volts each, which he received in fourteen minutes. Thirty witnesses saw "an arc of fire erupt from under his mask. Smoke came out from under the electrode on the right leg. The strap that fixed the leg caught fire and broke. After the second discharge, the convict's lawyers contacted Governor George Wallace to end the procedure, which had become unbearable. cruel torture. The governor turned down the petition, and John Evans received a third, this time a lethal discharge.

In 1985, the execution of William Vandevere in Indiana required five shocks of 2,250 volts each. The execution lasted seventeen minutes. Even after the third discharge, the doctor declared that the convict's heart was still beating at a frequency of forty beats per minute.

Many doctors claim that convicts lose consciousness after the first discharge, and even if the heart continues to beat and the lungs work, during subsequent discharges, the condemned no longer feel anything.

This statement completely refutes the execution of Judo, which we have already written about, as well as the execution in 1946 of a young black man named Willie Francis. He was one of the youngest people in history to be electrocuted: he was barely seventeen when he was executed.

A witness to the execution says: “I saw the performer turn on the current. The convict's lips swelled, his body began to arch. I heard the executioner yelling at the executioner to turn up the pressure because Willie Francis wasn't dead. But the executioner replied that he had already given the maximum current. Willie Francis yelled, “Stop! Let me breathe!"

The execution was stopped. The survivor said: “I felt a burning sensation on my head and on my leg. Multi-colored specks flickered. After deliberation, the Supreme Court ruled that nothing prevented the execution of a miraculous survivor. Willie Francis was put back in his chair, and this time he died on the first shock.

In 1972, the US Supreme Court abolished the death penalty in Furman v. Georgia. The court took it extremely important decision, determining that the death penalty was applied "arbitrarily and unreasonably" and, in violation of the constitution, turned into a cruel and inhuman punishment.

As a result, more than a thousand suicide bombers changed the preventive measure to life imprisonment. Criminals such as Charles Manson, the killer of actress Sharon Tate, Sirhan-Sirhan, the killer of Bob Kennedy, chuckling, left the "corridor of death."

As a result of this decision, some states have begun to revise the legislation. In 1976, the Supreme Court, in Gregg v. Georgia, ruled that the death penalty was not unconstitutional, approving laws revised by some states.

Thirty-six states have changed their laws since the Furman ruling, and today they provide for the death penalty for aggravated murder.

For several decades now, the technology of electrocution has remained virtually unchanged. The principle of operation of the electric chair is the same everywhere, although there are certain differences between the states in terms of the duration of the discharge and the voltage, which varies from 1750 to 2500 volts depending on the apparatus.

The execution itself and the preparation for it take place according to clearly established regulations, which are sometimes so detailed in by-laws that it turns into a real ritual.

The death ritual in the electric chair is similar to that of other execution methods used in the United States. When the countdown begins, the prisoner is taken out of the "corridor of death" and placed in a cell called the "special death cell" or "death chamber". Here the convict spends last days under continuous round-the-clock supervision. All personal belongings are taken from the suicide bomber. The death certificate is drawn up in advance with the note "Legitimate execution by electric current."

A few hours before the execution, the handcuffed prisoner is brought to the "preparation room". In this room, located next to the execution room, the condemned is subjected to a thorough examination. Examine all openings - nose, ears, mouth, anus - checking if anything is hidden there, in particular metal objects that can interfere with the killing procedure.

Examination of the body began to be carried out after the incident with a certain Albert Fish, who drove several dozen long metal needles into his body in order to disrupt the course of the execution. He was sure that with a discharge of 2000 volts, the needles would come out of the body, turning it into a porcupine. Nothing of the sort happened.

After the inspection, the guard cuts the sentenced man's hair with a buzz cut, then shaves off the square on the top of his head for a secure fit of the helmet electrodes.

Then the handcuffs are removed from the convict and sent to the shower, located in the corner of the room. He is given five or six minutes to bathe, after which he is put on a suit provided by the correctional facility. He can choose to stay barefoot or wear socks.

The execution of Richard (Bruno) Hauptmann in 1935. Photo "Keyston".

The death penalty in the electric chair of Willy Bragg, who killed his wife. The execution took place in Mississippi on a new chair improved by Jimmy Thompson. Engraving. Private count

States applying electric shock

In 1992, the electric chair was a legal method of execution in 14 states of America: Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia.

Previously, portable electric chairs were used in Louisiana and Mississippi. If necessary, they were brought to prisons and connected to generators located outside the execution room.

The youngest victims of electrocution were George Stinney, who was executed at the age of 16 in South Carolina in 1944 for murder, and the Frenchman William Francis, who was executed at the age of 17 in Louisiana in 1946.

Usually, while dressing, the confessor comes, and the director of the prison promises the convict that he will die instantly and without pain.

While the convict is being prepared, the deputy director solemnly welcomes official witnesses appointed by the convict himself, as well as journalists chosen by lot. The "witness room" is opposite the chair, behind which is a small nook with the electrical equipment of the killing machine.

Having seated the witnesses, the deputy director gives them written instructions, which, in particular, recommend that they behave with dignity and, under no pretext, communicate with the convict in any way. Witnesses are informed that during the execution will be on duty " Ambulance', in case any of them got sick.

For the last time, the direct telephone lines between the death room and the offices are checked. Attorney General and the governor - there is always the possibility of a last-second pardon.

As soon as the prisoner is dressed, he is again handcuffed and takes the last steps to separate him from the electric chair. He enters, escorted by four guards, the director of the prison, and a chaplain. He sees a chair.

The "electric chair" is a large oak chair with three or four legs, often painted White color standing on a thick rubber carpet and bolted to the floor.

Every electric chair in the US is unique. In some states they are made by firms or local artisans terms of reference provided by the Department of Justice. In other states, they are created by the prisoners themselves. Like, for example, the electric chair of the famous Rayford prison in Florida. It was made by prisoners in 1924 from an oak felled on the territory of the prison.

Warning lights are often used to indicate that "the chair is energized." The seat has a black rubber mat. The back of the chair is continued by two vertical posts twenty-five centimeters high, which serve to fix the head of the convict. Hands are tied to the armrests. In front between the legs there is a wooden plank that serves to fix the ankles.

In most cases, the convicted person is immobilized with seven straps: one for the lower back, one for the chest, one for the head, two for the wrists, two for the ankles.

The executioner, working anonymously, is in another room.

Location of the electrodes

Behind the chair on the wall is an electrical cabinet with two cables coming out of it. Attached to the same wall is a box containing "accessories": a helmet and a contact plate, "gaiters" and gloves of performers.

The helmet is made of thick leather, equipped with a chin strap and a special strip ten by twenty centimeters, with which the convict's eyes are closed. A "contact plate" is placed inside - a curved copper piece ten centimeters in diameter, with a rod protruding above the helmet in the center, to which the first electrode is attached.

S. T. Judy's press conference prior to his execution in Michigan City in 1981. Photo "Keyston".

The inside of the helmet is covered with a thin layer of natural sponge. It provides a tighter fit to the helmet and hides the smell of burnt flesh. Previously, the electrode was attached directly to the head of the convict, which led to serious burns and a terrible stench. However, even today, witnesses claim that the execution is accompanied by a terrible smell. The contact plate and sponge are often dipped in a solution of salted water to improve conductivity.

The director of the correctional facility invites the convict to make a statement, after which a helmet is put on his head.

"Gaiter" is also leather. It is usually twenty centimeters long and eight wide. The right trouser leg is cut off at the knee and a "gaiter" with an inner layer of metal, usually lead, foil is put on the shaved ankle. On one side, a copper plate with a threaded rod protruding outward is fixed, to which the second electrode is attached.

The passage of current through the contact plate of the helmet to the electrode on the ankle, through the lungs and heart, and leads to the death of the convict.

Were the Americans themselves the first to question the infallibility of electrocution? Probably because almost all the states where it is practiced have passed laws requiring an autopsy to be performed immediately after an execution.

The state of New York gave the reason without false modesty: "To eliminate any possibility of returning the object to life." On August 23, 1991, in Greensville, Virginia, Derrick Peterson received a discharge of 1725 volts for 10 seconds, then 240 volts for 90 seconds. When the body was removed from the chair, the doctor ascertained the presence of a pulse. The operation had to be repeated.

Grim Collection

In May 1972, a unique collection of Michael Foreman, an English shipowner, who collected several hundred instruments of torture and killing from the 7th century to the present day, was sold at the Christie auction. The result of the auction - more than a million dollars.

From the book Catherine II: Diamond Cinderella author Bushkov Alexander

who sets up a chair and, sitting on it, knits a stocking, listening to the conversations of the young ladies. Fekla. Will you get rid of us, Nanny Vasilisa? Lukerya. Nanny Vasilisa, may you fall through the ground! Nanny Vasilisa. God is with us, mothers! I'm doing the Lord's will. Yes, and you, my beauties

From the book The Newest Book of Facts. Volume 3 [Physics, chemistry and technology. History and archeology. Miscellaneous] author Kondrashov Anatoly Pavlovich

From the book How people discovered their land author Tomilin Anatoly Nikolaevich

Hans Oersted's Electrical Conflict That day at the University of Copenhagen, Professor Hans Christian Oersted was supposed to give a lecture on the connection between electricity and heat. The forty-three-year-old scientist was quite a well-known figure in Denmark.

From the book The Red Book of Things author Burovik Kim Alexandrovich

author

Chapter Five Westinghouse and his firm. Who would turn down $12 million? Three-phase current. Laufen-Frankfurt transfer. "Chicago. 1893rd. Columbian Exhibition. Niagara gives an electric current In July 1888, an unusual

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Chapter Six Currents of high frequency. Resonance transformer. Is electric current safe? Tesla Lecture on High Frequency Currents According to Tesla, the year he spent in Pittsburgh was lost for research work in the field of multiphase currents. It is possible that this

From the book In the world of frozen sounds author Okhotnikov Vadim Dmitrievich

9. The electric eye At the end of the last century, a Russian scientist, professor of physics at Moscow University A. G. Stoletov, studied a remarkable phenomenon. He observed that in some substances, when illuminated with light, an electric current arises! One of these

From the book Popular History - From Electricity to Television the author Kuchin Vladimir

And strange as it may seem, such a method was invented very soon, although it is simply not possible to call it humane - the electric chair.
The first electric chair was invented by Harold Brown, who worked for Thomas Edison.
Moreover, with the help of an electric chair, "two birds with one stone" were killed at once: the first - the "poor fellow" - a prisoner, and the second - scientific knowledge. And really, who would allow them to bully people and shock them with current at various voltages in order to see the reaction human body to different voltages, and in the end find out at what current strength it will hoard.
So, for example, two doctors named Prevest and Batteli, from scientific university in the United States demonstrated in 1899 that death in the electric chair is not due to brain damage, but primarily due to high voltage, which is accompanied by frequent and uneven contractions of the heart, resulting in its complete stop.
The electric chair was first used in the United States on August 6, 1890, at the Auburn Prison in New York State (eleven years later, Leon Czolgosz, the murderer of President McKinley, was executed in the same prison in the electric chair). During the 20th century, it was used in 25 states, but in recent decades the electric chair has been actively supplanted by other forms of execution (for example, lethal injection) and is now rarely used. For some time it was also used in the Philippines.
It is currently used in six states - in Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia at the choice of the convict along with lethal injection, and in Kentucky and Tennessee only those who have committed a crime before have the right to choose to use the electric chair certain date(in Kentucky on April 1, 1998; in Tennessee on January 1, 1999). In Nebraska, the electric chair was used as the only method of execution, but on February 8, 2008, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that it was a "cruel and unusual punishment" prohibited by the constitution. In Illinois and Oklahoma, it can only be used in strictly specified cases, for example, if all other methods of execution are found unconstitutional at the time of the execution of the death sentence.

During 2004 this method of execution was used only once, in 2005 it was never used, in 2006 - once.

On the this moment the last time the electric chair was used was on March 18, 2010, when Paul Powell, a racist murderer who killed a girl for dating a black man, was executed in Virginia, in addition, he raped and tried to kill her sister.
As for the execution itself, the convict had to be carefully prepared, having shaved his head and the back of the leg. This allows the skin to better contact the electrodes that are passed through the body. The prisoner's arms, torso and legs were tied with straps to a chair. One electrode was attached to the head, the other to the leg. At least two electrical currents pass through the body within a few minutes. The initial electrical voltage is equal to 2000 volts, which stops the heart and leads to death.
In one of the states in the USA, the protocol stated that 2450 volts were passed through the body of the convict for 15 seconds. After 15 minutes, the body was examined, but the person was still alive, as a result of which the procedure had to be repeated 3 more times. With such a voltage, the human body in literally words are fried at a temperature of 100 C, which leads to severe damage to all internal organs. Despite this, the convict struggled with all his might for life, as a result of which, after the power was turned off for the 3rd time, his eyeballs even melted and, of course, he was dead.
Blindfolding is also part of the execution. As a result of the execution, people can convulse and twitch uncontrollably, sometimes there is an involuntary emptying of the body. Prisoners are often asked to "swaddle" them.
Despite the fact that death is supposedly instantaneous, some prisoners scream during the execution. There were cases when people's heads caught fire and then exploded.
Human skin burns and smolders. And before the next use of the electric chair, someone has a "hard time", tearing off pieces of burnt skin from the seat and belts.

Interesting Facts:
- In 1991, two doctors from Poland also recommended that the hips of the defendants be tied, as there was a case when an arrested person broke both legs, when, after a huge force of the transmitted current, he violently beat them on a chair.
- In 1946, the electric chair broke down and the convict was “successfully” returned to the chair and executed only a year later.

Leon Czolgosz

Leon Frank Czolgosz assassinated the 25th President of the United States, William McKinley. "I killed the president because he was an enemy good people- good working people. I do not regret my crime,” Czolgosz said on this occasion.

While still at school, Leon became interested in anarchism and participated in strikes. In addition, from the age of 10 he worked - the family was sorely lacking money. Over time, the teenager thought about terrorist activities - in his opinion, the murder of a high-ranking official could be the beginning of the struggle for "universal equality."

Kennedy was not the only US president to be assassinated.

After McKinley's murder, Czolgosz was arrested. During litigation he declared that he had done his duty and was declared mentally sound. In addition, the man said that he acted alone and refused to communicate with lawyers. He was executed in the electric chair on October 29, 1901. During the execution, the eyes were usually covered with plaster, the hands were fastened with straps to the armrests, the legs - to the legs of the table. The use of the electric chair caused a heated discussion among Americans - many publications appeared in the press, which noted the cruelty of this method of execution.

Ted Bundy

Also nicknamed "The Charismatic Killer", he is one of the most "popular" maniacs in US history. This young, well-educated, attractive intellectual and potentially promising lawyer did not look like a sadistic rapist at all. Bundy knew how to charm: he used this skill to find his victims, he turned to the same talent in court to win the love of jurors, the public and journalists.

Bundy confessed to 30 murders, but experts noted that the real number of his victims could be much higher. Often the girls disappeared in crowded places: in a bar, on the beach, in the parking lot of a supermarket. The reason was simple: the criminal did not inspire fear in them, they all left with him voluntarily.

In January 1989, Bundy was executed in the electric chair (while he hoped for a pardon to the last). On that day, several thousand people organized a celebration near the walls of the prison.

Louis Buchalter

Louis Buchalter is an American gangster whose specialization was the "protection" of business. The man's criminal career began with control over trade unions. They paid Buchalter large weekly payments. In the 1930s, the man teamed up with several criminals. The gangsters formed a group called the Murder Corporation. The organization specialized in contract killings. Buchalter was arrested and executed in 1944. He was the only mafia leader sentenced to capital punishment.

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

The Rosenbergs were put on trial on charges of espionage. It was alleged that they passed nuclear secrets to the USSR and worked for Soviet intelligence. In 1951 they were sentenced to death. Several public organizations came out in support of Julius and Ethel. They were called for mercy by the Pope, Albert Einstein, Thomas Mann, Francois Mauriac and Jean-Paul Sartre. The case went to the US Supreme Court. President Dwight Eisenhower confirmed the death sentence. On June 19, 1953, the Rosenbergs were executed at Sing Sing Prison.