Tag: condemned
-
On This Day in 1953 – Louisa Merrifield, the Blackpool Poisoner.
It’s a fact that, for all their ruthlessness and guile, murderers can and do make the most idiotic mistakes. Louisa Merrifield was certainly one of them. Born in 1906, Merrifield was a liar, a fraudster, a cheat and ultimately a murderer. Today in 1953 her criminal career ended abruptly at the end of Albert Pierrepoint’s…
-
On This Day in 1934; The last British hanging witnessed by a journalist.
When Frederick Parker and Albert Probert mounted the gallows at Wandsworth Prison, they died never knowing they’d taken a singular place in Britain’s chronicles of crime. Theirs would be last execution in British prison to be witnessed by a gentleman (or lady) of the press. Until the Capital Punishment (Amendment) Act of 1868 executions were…
-
On this Day in 1925; The Biter (nearly) Bitten at Sing Sing.
When heroin-loving gangsters Morris ‘Whitey’ Diamond and his brother Joey teamed up with John Farina for an armed robbery and murder, they surely knew they had a fair chance of joining him in Sing Sing’s Death House and Old Sparky as well. The 1920’s and 30’s were halcyon days for New York’s ‘State Electrician’ and…
-
Doctor George Henry Lamson, the ‘Sleight of Hand Poisoner’; Not as clever as he thought.
All in all, a sorry fate for a man who'[d once shown such promise.
-
On This Day in 1959; Elmer Brunner, the last execution in West Virginia.
West Virginia has never been known as a hard-line death penalty State, abolishing capital punishment in 1965. After 1899 there were 104 hangings and, with a change in method, nine electrocutions. Elmer Brunner’s, on April 3, 1959 was the last. Brunner wasn’t a notable murderer in himself. His crime, murdering homeowner Ruby Miller, was…
-
George Kelly, falsely convicted and quickly hanged.
For most crime buffs the name ‘George Kelly’ inspires memories of rattling Tommy guns, bank robberies and the kidnapping of Charles Urschel, all attributed to American crook George ‘Machine Gun’ Kelly. Kelly, a second-rate gangster at best, was made out to be far worse than he actually was, spending the remainder of his life in…
-
Sparky’s Revenge; South Carolina considers reinstating the electric chair.
So, the State of South Carolina (previously responsible for executing then exonerating 14-year old George Stinney) is considering dusting off Old Sparky. Difficulties in obtaining lethal injection drugs have caused a backlog on Death Row. South Carolina has numerous condemned inmates, wants to start executing them, but can’t obtain the legally-approved means to do it.…
Crimescribe 