Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1890-08-13
HE DIED BY TORTURE.
AWFUL SCENE AT THE ExECU-
TION OF KEMMLER.
The Current at First Fails to Kill and
q Second Application is Neces-
sary Incidents in the
Death Chamber at
Auburn.

q rapping at room doors and general
awakening through the hotels of Au-
burn Warden Durston had left
quiet 'scall'' for his witnesses, and they
were ordered to report at the prison at
o'clock. An hour before their coming
the Rev. DIR. Houghton and Chaplain
Yates appeared at the gate of the pris-
on and were admitted. After brief con-
sultation with the warden they were
taken down to Reminders cell, where
the condemned man was already awake
and talking with his keeper.
About o'clock the witnesses began to
arrive at the prison, and by $3.50 all
were present and seated in a little cir
Gle around the execution chamber, wait
ing for the appearance OF the warden
and his charge.
sICKENING SCENES.
AUBURN Prison, Auburn, n. Y, Aug
cat last all was in readiness for the
execution. The door leading into the
room where the switches were arranged
was partly open. A man stood in the
doorway. Beyond him there were two
other men, Which Of them was to
touch the lever and make the connec-
ton with the chair was not known.
The dynamo in the machine shop was
running at good speed, and the
volt meter on the wall registered
little more than 1000 volts. Warden
Durston turned to the assembled doc
! tors-those Immediately around the
execution chair-and said: "Do the
doctors say it is all right?" Hardly
minute had elapsed since the adjust
ment of the straps. There was no time
| for Kemmler to have weakened even if
his marvellous courage had not been
| equal to the test of further delay. But
there is no fear that he would have
lost courage He was as calm
in the chair as he had been
before he entered the room, and
during the process of his confinement
| by the straps which held him close.
| At the warden's question DR.. Fell
stepped forward with long syringe in
his hand, and quickly but deity wetted
the two sponges, which were at the
the other at the base of the spine. The
water which he put on them was inn
pregnated with salt. DR.. Spitzka
answered the warden's question
with sharp call right" which
was echoed by others about
him. Ready ~ said Durston again,
and then, tGood-bye." He stepped to
the door, and through the opening said
to someone in the next room-but to
whom will probably never be known
with certainty Everything is ready"
An almost immediate response, and
as the stop watches in the hands of some
| of the witnesses registered 6:431 the
| electric current was turned on.
There was sudden CONFUSION of the
frame in the chair a spasm went over
| it from head to foot, confined by the
straps and springs that held it firmly so
| that no limb or other parts of the body
stirred more than small fraction of an
inch from it's resting place. The witch
ing that the muscles of the face under
went gave to it for a moment an ex-
preston of pain. But no cry escaped
from the lips, which were free to move
at will; no sound came forth to suggest
that consciousness lasted more than an
yond the calculation of the human
mind. The body remained in this rigid
| position for seventeen seconds. The
jury and the witnesses, who remained
seated up to this moment, came hur-
rledly forward and surrounded the
chair. There was no movement of the
| body beyond that first CONFUSION.
1T was not pretty sight-this man in
| his shirt sleeves, bound hand, foot,
body and even head, with heavy
framework pressing down on the top of
his skull, still with the stiffness of death.
DR.. Mcdonald held a stop watch in his
noted their passage. DR.. Spitzka, too,
looked at the stop-watch, and as the
tenth second expired he cried out:
| Stop" "Stop," cried other voices
about. The warden turned to the door
way, and called out ''Stop," to the man
at the lever. A quick movement of the
arm, and the electric current was
switched off.
There was a relaxation of the body
in the chair-a slight relaxation-but
the straps held it so firmly that there
was not quarter of an inch variation
| in the position of any part of the frame.
The quiet little group around the chair
grew business-like. "He's dead, said
re-echoed DR.. Mcdonald, with firm con-
fidence. The rest of the witnesses
| nodded their acquiescence. There was
no question in the mind of any one but
that the stiff upright object before them
was lifeless. This was the programme.
this the inevitable effect.
The next question was, what was to
be done with the body? DR.. Spitzka
stepped forward and called attention to
the appearance OF the nose, which he
said had an undoubted post-mortem
color. No one disputed this. DR..
| Spltzka turned around and pointing to
the harness said: ooh, undo that.
Now the body can be taken to the
hospital" The warden replied that he
could not let any of the witnesses. so
until he had their certificates, All of
this conversation took but minute.
DIR. Batch was bending over the body
looking at the exposed skin. Suddenly
he cried out sharply: CDR. Mcdonald,
see that rupture" In moment DR..
Spitzka and DR.. Mcdonald had bent
over, and, looking where DR.. Batch was
pointing at a little red spot on the
hand that rested on the right arm of the
chair. The index finger of the hand
had curved backward as the flesh or
muscles contracted, and had scraped
small hole in the skin at the base of the
thumb on the back Of the hand. There
was nothing strange in this alone, but
what was strange was that the little
rupture was dropping blood