1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:05,080 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:05,800 --> 00:00:09,400 Speaker 1: Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a 3 00:00:09,440 --> 00:00:13,160 Speaker 1: show that uncovers a little bit more about history every day. 4 00:00:15,280 --> 00:00:18,840 Speaker 1: I'm Gabe Lucier, and today we're looking at the origin 5 00:00:18,960 --> 00:00:22,160 Speaker 1: of the electric chair, including how it became the most 6 00:00:22,200 --> 00:00:27,560 Speaker 1: widely used method of execution in America for nearly a century. 7 00:00:28,240 --> 00:00:37,600 Speaker 1: As a warning, today's episode includes descriptions of state executions 8 00:00:37,800 --> 00:00:42,960 Speaker 1: and may be disturbing for some listeners. The day was 9 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:48,960 Speaker 1: August sixth, eighteen ninety Convicted killer William Kemmler became the 10 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:54,080 Speaker 1: first person to be executed by electrocution. The German American 11 00:00:54,160 --> 00:00:57,720 Speaker 1: produce vendor had been found guilty of murder after flying 12 00:00:57,720 --> 00:01:00,400 Speaker 1: into a drunken rage and hacking up his girl friend 13 00:01:00,600 --> 00:01:04,440 Speaker 1: Matilda Ziegler with a hatchet. He was sentenced to die 14 00:01:04,560 --> 00:01:07,480 Speaker 1: by a new method of capital punishment known as the 15 00:01:07,520 --> 00:01:10,840 Speaker 1: electric chair, and the sentence was carried out, though with 16 00:01:10,880 --> 00:01:15,880 Speaker 1: some difficulty, at the Auburn Prison in New York. Like 17 00:01:15,959 --> 00:01:19,560 Speaker 1: the guillotine before it, the electric chair was conceived of 18 00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:24,560 Speaker 1: as a more humane alternative to execution by hanging. The 19 00:01:24,680 --> 00:01:28,840 Speaker 1: idea was first suggested by doctor Albert Southwick, a New 20 00:01:28,920 --> 00:01:31,360 Speaker 1: York dentist who happened to witness the death of a 21 00:01:31,440 --> 00:01:36,839 Speaker 1: drunken man who accidentally stumbled into an electrical generator. Southwick 22 00:01:36,920 --> 00:01:40,880 Speaker 1: was surprised by the quickness of the stranger's death, especially 23 00:01:40,959 --> 00:01:45,160 Speaker 1: in contrast to the leading form of execution at the time, hanging, 24 00:01:45,520 --> 00:01:47,680 Speaker 1: which was known to take up to half an hour 25 00:01:47,840 --> 00:01:52,400 Speaker 1: in some cases. This experience led Southwick to wonder if 26 00:01:52,440 --> 00:01:55,800 Speaker 1: delivering an electrical shock might be a more humane way 27 00:01:55,880 --> 00:02:00,240 Speaker 1: to execute condemned prisoners. To test his theory, southward Wwick 28 00:02:00,280 --> 00:02:04,720 Speaker 1: began electrocuting stray animals in Buffalo, New York, finding that 29 00:02:04,880 --> 00:02:08,920 Speaker 1: once again, they seemed to die instantly and seemingly without pain. 30 00:02:10,160 --> 00:02:13,200 Speaker 1: Now convinced that he was on to something, Southwick began 31 00:02:13,280 --> 00:02:16,200 Speaker 1: thinking of ways to standardize the procedure so that the 32 00:02:16,280 --> 00:02:19,720 Speaker 1: lethal shock could be administered properly each and every time. 33 00:02:20,680 --> 00:02:23,200 Speaker 1: This led him to the idea of some kind of 34 00:02:23,320 --> 00:02:27,280 Speaker 1: specialized chair, not unlike a dental chair, through which an 35 00:02:27,320 --> 00:02:32,760 Speaker 1: electrical current could be channeled. Southwick spent several years lobbying 36 00:02:32,840 --> 00:02:37,040 Speaker 1: state officials to adopt electrocution as New York's primary method 37 00:02:37,080 --> 00:02:41,200 Speaker 1: of execution. The Governor thought the idea had merit, so 38 00:02:41,280 --> 00:02:44,920 Speaker 1: he appointed a three man commission, which included doctor Southwick, 39 00:02:45,160 --> 00:02:49,440 Speaker 1: to further study the matter. The committee compared and contrasted 40 00:02:49,560 --> 00:02:53,920 Speaker 1: numerous forms of capital punishment throughout history, and eventually concluded 41 00:02:53,960 --> 00:02:59,040 Speaker 1: that electrocution would indeed allow prisoners to quote die as 42 00:02:59,120 --> 00:03:04,480 Speaker 1: pleasantly as possible, and so, in eighteen eighty nine, New 43 00:03:04,560 --> 00:03:09,040 Speaker 1: York's electrical execution Law went into effect, and Edwin Davis, 44 00:03:09,200 --> 00:03:13,000 Speaker 1: the Auburn State Prison electrician, was tasked with designing the 45 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:18,200 Speaker 1: world's first electrified chair. Davis was quietly joined in this 46 00:03:18,360 --> 00:03:23,840 Speaker 1: endeavor by prolific inventor and electrical pioneer Thomas Edison. At 47 00:03:23,840 --> 00:03:26,960 Speaker 1: the time, Edison and his company were engaged in a 48 00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:31,919 Speaker 1: smear campaign against their competitors, George Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla, 49 00:03:32,400 --> 00:03:37,240 Speaker 1: both of whom favored alternating current. Edison, whose own products 50 00:03:37,320 --> 00:03:42,800 Speaker 1: used direct current electricity, claimed that alternating current was fundamentally unsafe, 51 00:03:43,200 --> 00:03:45,440 Speaker 1: and to prove that to the public, he and his 52 00:03:45,560 --> 00:03:48,760 Speaker 1: team worked behind the scenes to help build an electric 53 00:03:48,840 --> 00:03:54,080 Speaker 1: chair using a Westinghouse generator. After all, what better way 54 00:03:54,160 --> 00:03:57,080 Speaker 1: to prove that a product is dangerous than by using 55 00:03:57,120 --> 00:04:00,800 Speaker 1: it to kill someone? This early model of the electric 56 00:04:00,880 --> 00:04:04,600 Speaker 1: chair closely resembled the modern device. It was a custom 57 00:04:04,680 --> 00:04:09,200 Speaker 1: wooden chair fitted with two electrodes, small metal disks held 58 00:04:09,200 --> 00:04:12,960 Speaker 1: together with rubber and covered with a damp sponge. Once 59 00:04:12,960 --> 00:04:16,120 Speaker 1: the condemned was strapped into the chair, the electrodes would 60 00:04:16,120 --> 00:04:18,920 Speaker 1: be applied to their head and back, with the goal 61 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:22,839 Speaker 1: being to electrically destroy the brain and nervous system before 62 00:04:22,880 --> 00:04:27,039 Speaker 1: any pain signals could reach them. Once again, like the 63 00:04:27,080 --> 00:04:30,280 Speaker 1: guillotine before it, and like the gas chamber and lethal 64 00:04:30,320 --> 00:04:34,200 Speaker 1: injection after it, the electric chair was touted as quick 65 00:04:34,400 --> 00:04:38,800 Speaker 1: and painless, but those claims were less than convincing once 66 00:04:38,839 --> 00:04:43,000 Speaker 1: the method was put into practice. Because William Kemmler was 67 00:04:43,040 --> 00:04:45,839 Speaker 1: the first to die in the electric chair, his execution 68 00:04:46,080 --> 00:04:50,279 Speaker 1: was made into a public spectacle. On August sixth, eighteen ninety. 69 00:04:50,520 --> 00:04:52,919 Speaker 1: He was strapped into the chair before an audience of 70 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:58,520 Speaker 1: prison officials, doctors, and curious reporters. The generator was charged 71 00:04:58,520 --> 00:05:01,480 Speaker 1: with a thousand vaults and the current was passed through 72 00:05:01,560 --> 00:05:06,320 Speaker 1: Kemler's body for seventeen seconds. That amount of time had 73 00:05:06,320 --> 00:05:09,880 Speaker 1: been deemed more than sufficient by the attending physicians, but 74 00:05:09,960 --> 00:05:13,719 Speaker 1: to everyone's surprise when Kemler's body was unfastened from the chair. 75 00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:18,600 Speaker 1: He began to groan and gasp for breath. Witnesses reportedly 76 00:05:18,640 --> 00:05:22,039 Speaker 1: screamed turn on the current, at which point Kemler was 77 00:05:22,040 --> 00:05:24,960 Speaker 1: put back into the chair and shocked a second time, 78 00:05:25,400 --> 00:05:28,800 Speaker 1: this time with two thousand vaults and for several minutes. 79 00:05:29,839 --> 00:05:32,840 Speaker 1: The New York Herald published a first hand account from 80 00:05:32,880 --> 00:05:35,640 Speaker 1: a journalist who'd been in the room that day. He 81 00:05:35,720 --> 00:05:40,320 Speaker 1: recounted the grizzly ordeal, writing that the scene of Kemmler's 82 00:05:40,360 --> 00:05:44,679 Speaker 1: execution was too horrible to picture. Men accustomed to every 83 00:05:44,760 --> 00:05:48,200 Speaker 1: form of suffering grew faint as the awful spectacle was 84 00:05:48,279 --> 00:05:51,760 Speaker 1: unfolded before their eyes. Those who stood in the sight 85 00:05:52,080 --> 00:05:54,760 Speaker 1: were filled with awe as they saw the effects of 86 00:05:54,839 --> 00:05:58,880 Speaker 1: this most potent of fluid's electricity, which is only partially 87 00:05:59,000 --> 00:06:02,240 Speaker 1: understood by those who have studied it most faithfully, as 88 00:06:02,279 --> 00:06:06,960 Speaker 1: it slowly, too slowly, disintegrated the fiber and tissues of 89 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:10,520 Speaker 1: the body through which it passed. The heaving of the chest, 90 00:06:10,760 --> 00:06:13,120 Speaker 1: which it had been promised, would be stilled in an 91 00:06:13,160 --> 00:06:16,280 Speaker 1: instant of peace as soon as the circuit was completed, 92 00:06:16,920 --> 00:06:20,480 Speaker 1: the foaming of the mouth, the bloody sweat, the writhing 93 00:06:20,520 --> 00:06:24,440 Speaker 1: of shoulders, and all other signs of life. Horrible as 94 00:06:24,480 --> 00:06:28,040 Speaker 1: these all were, they were made infinitely more horrible by 95 00:06:28,080 --> 00:06:31,919 Speaker 1: the premature removal of the electrodes and the subsequent replacing 96 00:06:31,960 --> 00:06:35,080 Speaker 1: of them for not seconds, but minutes, until the room 97 00:06:35,240 --> 00:06:38,400 Speaker 1: was filled with the odor of burning flesh, and strong 98 00:06:38,440 --> 00:06:43,720 Speaker 1: men fainted and fell like logs upon the floor. Other 99 00:06:43,800 --> 00:06:49,640 Speaker 1: newspapers called the execution disgusting, sickening, and inhuman, but proponents 100 00:06:49,680 --> 00:06:52,280 Speaker 1: of the electric chair were quick to claim the demonstration 101 00:06:52,440 --> 00:06:56,640 Speaker 1: as a win, including doctor Southwick, who declared, quote, we 102 00:06:56,720 --> 00:07:01,440 Speaker 1: live in a higher civilization from this day on. His 103 00:07:01,600 --> 00:07:05,560 Speaker 1: reaction was a stark contrast to that of George Westinghouse, 104 00:07:05,839 --> 00:07:09,359 Speaker 1: who sullenly observed that the executioners would have done better 105 00:07:09,560 --> 00:07:13,720 Speaker 1: to use an ax. Despite the horror show that had 106 00:07:13,720 --> 00:07:17,360 Speaker 1: been Kemmler's execution, the electric chair remained in use in 107 00:07:17,400 --> 00:07:20,640 Speaker 1: New York and was quickly adopted by several other states. 108 00:07:20,680 --> 00:07:24,440 Speaker 1: In the years ahead, the chair itself was modified and 109 00:07:24,520 --> 00:07:29,880 Speaker 1: refined as electricity became better understood, but botched electrocutions still 110 00:07:29,920 --> 00:07:35,880 Speaker 1: occurred with alarming regularity. The chair's spotty track record led 111 00:07:35,920 --> 00:07:41,040 Speaker 1: many to question whether electrocution violates the US Constitution's eighth Amendment, 112 00:07:41,240 --> 00:07:45,200 Speaker 1: which prohibits the use of cruel and unusual punishment. The 113 00:07:45,240 --> 00:07:48,120 Speaker 1: Supreme Court has never weighed in on the matter one 114 00:07:48,120 --> 00:07:50,920 Speaker 1: way or the other, but based on witness accounts and 115 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:54,320 Speaker 1: autopsy reports, there is evidence to suggest that the chair 116 00:07:54,440 --> 00:07:58,480 Speaker 1: meets the definition. Kemler himself argued as much in a 117 00:07:58,520 --> 00:08:01,840 Speaker 1: court challenge just before his death, and many others have 118 00:08:01,920 --> 00:08:06,320 Speaker 1: echoed the charge in the decades since. The controversy eventually 119 00:08:06,400 --> 00:08:09,760 Speaker 1: led most states to do away with electrocution in favor 120 00:08:09,800 --> 00:08:13,200 Speaker 1: of lethal injection, but at the time of recording, using 121 00:08:13,240 --> 00:08:20,280 Speaker 1: the electric chair is still an option in seven US states, Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, 122 00:08:20,520 --> 00:08:26,080 Speaker 1: South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. In addition, two other states, 123 00:08:26,360 --> 00:08:30,720 Speaker 1: Arkansas and Oklahoma, have passed laws to immediately reinstate the 124 00:08:30,800 --> 00:08:36,600 Speaker 1: electric chair should lethal injection ever be declared unconstitutional. To date, 125 00:08:36,800 --> 00:08:39,880 Speaker 1: there have been more than forty three hundred electric chair 126 00:08:39,960 --> 00:08:43,240 Speaker 1: executions in the United States, the last of which so 127 00:08:43,440 --> 00:08:47,600 Speaker 1: far was carried out in Tennessee in twenty twenty. At 128 00:08:47,600 --> 00:08:50,720 Speaker 1: this point, the method of execution can no longer be 129 00:08:50,800 --> 00:08:54,480 Speaker 1: considered an unusual punishment, but whether or not it's a 130 00:08:54,520 --> 00:09:02,760 Speaker 1: cruel one is still open to debate. I'm gay, Blues gay, 131 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:06,120 Speaker 1: and hopefully you now know a little more about history 132 00:09:06,200 --> 00:09:09,719 Speaker 1: today than you did yesterday. If you'd like to keep 133 00:09:09,800 --> 00:09:12,680 Speaker 1: up with the show, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, 134 00:09:12,720 --> 00:09:16,960 Speaker 1: and Instagram at TDI HC Show, and if you have 135 00:09:17,040 --> 00:09:19,880 Speaker 1: any comments or suggestions, feel free to send them my 136 00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:24,760 Speaker 1: way by writing to this Day at iHeartMedia dot com. 137 00:09:24,800 --> 00:09:27,800 Speaker 1: Thanks to Kasby Bias for producing the show, and thanks 138 00:09:27,880 --> 00:09:30,240 Speaker 1: to you for listening. I'll see you back here again 139 00:09:30,280 --> 00:09:42,920 Speaker 1: tomorrow for another day in history class.