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NYCHS excerpts: Mark Gado's Stone Upon Stone: Sing Sing Prison

Ch. 4: The Electric Chair

. . . Although [William] Kemmler's execution took place in Auburn prison [August 1890], Sing Sing later executed its first prisoner, Harris A. Smiler on July 7, 1891. Three others went to their deaths the same day in the newly installed electric chair. These executions were performed somewhat successfully and soon the public began to accept the idea of electrocution.

By 1916, all of New York's executions took place at Sing Sing. This was a dramatic change from years past when executions would be held in the county where the crime occurred and under the direction of local authorities. . . Once the state's central execution site was established at Sing Sing, a new death house had to be built at a cost of $268,000.. . . The building was isolated from the rest of the prison as much as possible. It had its own kitchen and hospital as well as an autopsy room. It is not true that the lights would dim . . . when the electric chair was used. . . . since the current used for executions was generated specifically for that purpose . . . .

Electric chair blueprint (Courtesy of Ossining Historical Society)

And so began an era that would span nearly 75 years and ultimately take the lives of more than 600 convicts. New York would execute more people than any other state in America during that time and, as such, would become the flagship for capital punishment in the Western world.

Ch. 5: The Executioner

. . . the [Sing Sing] executioner was not on a weekly salary. He was paid $50 per event. In multiple executions, (and there were many) a man could make a tidy sum.

Sing Sing's first executioner was a man named Edwin Davis. Back then, executioners were called electricians. Davis took the job in 1891 and was the man who pulled the switch on the unfortunate William Kemmler. Of course, killing people by electricity was a novel undertaking at that time and the technique had to be refined with each killing. Davis also executed Martha Place, the first female electrocuted in American history, on March 20, 1899. His most prolific day was August 12, 1912, when he executed seven men in less than one hour at Sing Sing.

Apparently, by 1914, Davis had enough of killing. . . . But after Davis retired, another man, John Hilbert, Auburn's electrician, got the job . . .. After 1919, his fee was raised to $150 per execution. Over the years, however, Hilbert became withdrawn and depressed. . . . In 1926, he suddenly resigned on the night before two men were scheduled to die. . . . the state selected Edwin Davis' original protégé, Robert G. Elliot . . . As for John Hilbert, he was later found with a bullet in his head in the basement of his Auburn home, an apparent suicide. . . .

. . . The public did not know Elliot's identity for quite some time. In the early years, he concealed his occupation from his family. It wasn't until 1928 when a New York City tabloid reporter followed him from Ossining to his home in Queens, that his name was first published. . . .

Sacco, executed in 1927, by Robert G. Elliot.

Elliot was comfortable with his work and saw it as a necessary occupation that someone had to perform. He loved gardening, fishing and photography. . .

Ch. 6: The Agent of Death

Elliot's very first execution was a man named Luigi Rapito on January 28, 1926. . . . He pulled the switch on Sacco and Vanzetti in July 1927.

In 1927, he executed his first female, Ruth Snyder, convicted along with her boyfriend, Henry J. Gray, of murdering her husband for insurance money. . . . Warden Lewis [Lawes] . . . said later that "over 3,000 people milled around the gates of Sing Sing" as the execution hour grew near.

On the night of Ruth Snyder's execution, a New York Daily News photographer smuggled a camera into the death chamber by taping it to his leg. At the precise moment Snyder was electrocuted, he snapped a photo. . . .

Robert Elliot remained on the job until 1939 when he took ill. He died later that year in Queens, New York, at the age of 66. During his time, he had executed 387 men and women in five states, but mostly in New York. . .

When news of Elliot's sickness became known, Warden Lewis Lawes requested applications for the executioner's job. . . . One newspaper reported on August 22, 1939, "Prison officials have received 400 applications from persons who want the job."

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NYCHS excerpts: Mark Gado's Stone Upon Stone: Sing Sing Prison
NYCHS logo Court TV's Crime Library logoNYCHS is honored to be permitted to post this excerpts presentation of Mark Gado's Stone Upon Stone: Sing Sing Prison appearing on Court TV's Crime Library web site that retains all rights under its copyright. Visit Court TV's Crime Library web site to view the complete 16-chapter article, including more historical images, a useful bibliography and the full long list of New Rochelle Detective Gado's other articles on that site. Thanks also to the Ossining Historical Society for use of images from its archives.