AIDED SCIENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 286, 3 December 1938, Page 11

AIDED SCIENCE.

MURDERER'S DOOM. l WHEN BULLETS STRUCK. « FILM OF HEART BEATS. ( (Prom Our Own Correspondent.) SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 8. Killer John W. Deering faced five picked riflemen willingly and without 1 apparent emotion at Utah State prison in Salt Lake City, yet he was. literally "scared to death." Study of an electro-cardiograph film afterwards disclosed that Convict Deering hid an extremely emotional heart behind a "bold front." The 40-vear-old, bushy-haired Deering, behind prison bars most of his adult life, was executed by a firing squad for the confessed robbery-killing of Oliver R. Meredith, jun., Salt Lake City business man. He smiled and spoke calmly as he emerged from death row. He walked unaided to the executioner's wooden chair against the rock wall and sat rigid, awaiting without a word four death-dealing bullets. Yet his heart pounded like a trip hammer. Deering, his life deemed a I failure, co-operated with scientists to record for the first time the actions of a human heart pierced with bullets. "He put on a good front." said Dr. Stephen Besley, prison physician. "The electro-cardiograph film shows his bold demeanour hid the actual emotions pounding within him. He was 'scared to death.'" Irregular Rhythm. Deering's normal heart beat of 72 per minute pounded away at 180 — nearly three times normal—the few minutes he was in the chair. "Each time he was spoken to. his heart fluttered. The rhythm was very irregular," said Dr. Besley. When asked for a final statement, Deering's heart raced. It calmed aftei he spoke and beat fast but evenly the remaining 30 seconds before the shote

rang out. When the bullets shattered the heart, the beat fluctuated wildly, then gradually ebbed to a stop 15.6 seconds after Deering was shot. Dr. Besley said the test was of great * benefit scientifically. It disclosed the effect of fear on the heart and how soon death occurred after a heart is wounded. Five legal executioners, who received £10 each, were in the squad which blasted out Deering's life. One rifle contained a blank cartridge, however. The marksmen were not identified and they drew lots for the guns. Deering willed his body to the University of Utah Medical School for study. His only relative, a sister in Chicago, agreed. The corneas of his eyes were rushed to San Francisco , where a specialist later attempted to restore sight to a blind person.