Execution By Electric Chair

The story of how electricity transformed from a modern convenience into a tool for killing criminals is complicated and, at times, infuriating. In this episode we explore how it began and where it all went wrong.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:46 The History Of Electricity
03:59 Electric Death
06:41 Designing The Chair
09:17 The First To Die
11:43 Cruel And Unusual
14:58 Decline
17:40 Conclusion

First the episode starts with a brief history of electricity. The ancient world didn't realize it represented a fundamental force of nature. But they did notice that touching electric eels and fish could relieve pain. And that was the extent of human knowledge until the 1600s. William Gilbert performed experiments to learn more about electricity. Later more scientists added to the body of knowledge. This included Benjamin Franklin, Luigi Galvani, Michael Faraday, Georg Ohm, and James Clerk Maxwell. By the end of the 19th century, scientists understood that electricity could kill.

The idea to use electricity for ending lives emerged completely by accident. A drunken dock worker broke into a power plant one night and touched a generator which was immediately fatal. A year later his death was explained at a conference. An attendee named Alfred P. Southwick was present and he was inspired to learn more. Alfred performed experiments on stray dogs killing hundreds. Then he published his work in scientific journals and waited.

In 1886 the Governor of New York created a commission to find a more humane way to kill criminals. Alfred Southwick was one of the members. The final recommendation was the electric chair. Nobody knew what type of electricity to use so they asked Thomas Edison. Edison suggested using AC power, the type preferred by his rival George Westinghouse. The committee agreed and the electric chair was born.

The first victim of the chair was in 1890. William Kemmler was electrocuted and everyone thought he was dead. But he started breathing and they had to shock him again to finish the deed. Mistakes would happen with the electric chair again and again up until as recently as 2019.

Numerous victims met their fate while being strapped to this deadly device. Some women, such as Ruth Snyder and Lynda Lyon Block, have been killed with it. Juveniles are also not immune. Willie Francis was just 16 when he survived the experience, then had to go back and endure it again a few months later. Recently some inmates, such as Lee Hall, have even chosen the electric chair preferring to take their chances with electricity rather than lethal injection.

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Finally, we used third party images and video footage for this episode. They were used under fair use and/or creative commons. The original versions can be found using the links below:

Photo of electric catfish:

Photo of Ruth Snyder:

Photo of Willie Francis:

Ted Bundy Electric Chair Execution Scene:

24 Hours on Death Row description of Alabama Electric Chair:

Report on Nebraska's electric chair and its use and procedures:

Picture of Leyden Jar:

[BadThingsInHistory]

Do you think the electric chair is a fast and mostly painless way to die? Or is it cruel and barbaric? Let us know what you think!

If you learned something interesting from this episode then you may also like to watch one our previous releases, Execution By Beheading:

[tonyperek]

We need-and very badly-to reinstate the death penalty in all 50 states. I am sick and tired of the innocent having to suffer because of the guilty. We need to inforce the laws like they do in countries abroad. Make the punishment fit the crime. No more excuses, no more lies. You did the crime, now you must pay.

[crippleguy]

Morphine overdose . Most peaceful way to exit this life .

[violinistoftaupo]

Fred Leuchter, who built electric chairs, said that in order to deliver a fast and painless death, the condemned needs to suffer massive damage to their body.

[MrKenLor]

The most disturbing thing about this video is the smiling girl.

[tjcaruthers]

"People need to learn love and forgiveness", says the convicted murderer who doused his girlfriend in gasoline and sets her on fire.

[christophergreen]

Was the method of death the killer give his victim cruel&unusual? Murderers should get the same death they handed out

[pieterveenders]

Benjamin Franklin wasn't the inventor of the capacitor, Dutch scientist Pieter van Musschenbroek invented the "Leyden jar", mentioned in the video, which was the first capacitor. It was named after the famous university city of Leiden, which is where he invented it.

[kennethlagrow]

I feel the condemned should receive the exact amount of humane treatment as they showed their victims. I have no compassion or empathy for those committing horrible crimes. If their victims were in terror and pain when they were murdered then the one that done the crimes should have the same treatment.

[victorcontreras]

As I see it, no matter what method of execution we can use, there will always be somebody crying out for the "poor criminal" that it's cruel and unusual punishment! How we don't care of his victim/s. What about the guy that poured gas on his girlfriend and set her on fire!!! No pain? No mercy here. You do bad -- face the music.

[johnshields]

The chair should be used, why should we coddle murderers, severe punishment should be used, we here in the USA have become soft, weak against murderers, it's pathetic, what about the victim and the victims families.

[davidmeckley]

Glad I watched till the very end! What you said is spot on. I will say this. There's always going to be wars on earth. There's people who have been fighting since the beginning of time and they'll keep it up until the end of time. Sad but true!

[lesliecarr]

One ideology that is older than the hills is "The punishment should fit the crime." If you want to save criminals from cruel and unusual punishment, all you need to do is wait until some crazy bastard kills one of your loved ones.

[johnw]

Why should killers not be tormented they same way they killed their victims. The victims did not get a merciful death the killers should not

[aerocam]

Why are we so friggin concerned that the form of execution for the guilty, when they had zero concern for how “civilized” they took the lives of their victims. Personally, I think they should die by the EXACT method they snuffed out their victims lives, regardless of how gruesome. How can that ever be anything less than fair.

[russelljones]

I want to go in my sleeplike my uncle, not in a flaming car wreck like the people with him

[tommythomason]

The problem with electric chairs is not the apparatus, but of human error from supposedly trained staff. No way, a brain can take an 1800 - 2400 volt charge of electricity at 8 amps, or more. The condemned is, for all practical purposes, brain dead at the first shock, and there can be no ability for pain.
Just the same, a firing squad would be a more reliable method.

[melodyszadkowski]

It ultimately boils down to this, for me: I would have absolutely no problem whatsoever with a death penalty in any form, if our system was truly blind, which it isn't.

[ronlevandoski]

I'm not as concerned about the criminals as I am about their victims who probably would NOT have chosen the method the criminal used to kill them!

[desialley]

Eye for an eye....did the one sent to death make sure the victim had painless death?? So who give a damn if the people suffer they made the bed. No empathy for these people