ELECTRIC CHAIR

Evening Star, Issue 20993, 6 January 1932, Page 4

ELECTRIC CHAIR

HANGING MORE MERCIFUL Hanging is more merciful than the electric chair. In a long-overduo attempt to prove that murder meets with retribution, even in Chicago, lour murderers have paid the extreme penalty in Cook County Gaol. A fifth obtained a lastminute reprieve. A new electric chair was brought into operation, but death was in no case instantaneous. It took twentyfour minutes to carry out the death sentences, says the British United Press from Chicago. Frank Jordan, who murdered two policemen, was the first to die. Ho was carried into the death chamber at 12.13 a.m , and when the first charge of electricity was applied his feet flew up in the air. A nervous executioner had forgotten to strap them. The error was remedied, and the current turned on again. He took four minutes to die. Two powerful charges of current were necessary to execute Charles Bocco, who was concerned in the murder of a banker during a hold-up. The first charge failed to kill, and the electricity was switched on for a second time. It was eight minutes before his heart stopped beating. Rocco’s accomplice, John Popcscu, was the next to be put in the chair. Ho trembled in the arms of his guards as he was placed in it. His execution took six minutes. Six minutes were also required to kill Richard Sullivan, who took part in the murder of a restaurant owner. He went to the chair almost with a swagger, firmly believing that his archenemy. Frank Bell, had died in the chair before him But 801 l was the man who had obtained a last-minute reprieve. There were 150 witnesses of the executions, gazing through a plateglass partition into the brilliantlylighted death chamber. Among them was Ernest Schacubliu, who had tackled the murderer Jordan after he had killed the. two policemen. Ho laughed when told that Jordan remembered and hated him to the last. “ I hope you realise that , this exhibition is Cook Comity’s warning to murderers,” said a deputy-shorilf, addressing the crowd of spectators after the executions.