The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1897-04-21
First Time the Electrical Chair Has
Been Used in the State.
A Train on the Detroit, Grand Rapids
and Western Railway Strikes a
Railway at Crossing Near South
Lyon, Michigan, Instantly Killing
Two of Its Occupants and Seriously
lnjuring Another.

COLUMBUS (O), April 21.-The first
execution by electricity in Ohio took
place this "wednesday morning short
| ly after midnight in the annex of the
| Ohio Penitentiary, where for the past
thirteen years capital punishment has
| been meted out to all persons under
sentence of death in the State by hang
ing. The electrical chair and appliances
| have been in place in the old execution
room for several weeks. They are sim
| liar to those used in New York
| The execution of William Haas was
set for April Sth, but owing to the
| burning out of the armature on the
| dynamo the execution had to be post
poned, and Governor Bushnell fixed the
date so that Haas would be executed
on the day set for the execution of
| William Wiley. a new armature toabe
used was secured and the test to-day
| showed that it was fully up to the re-
| quirements To prevent any POSSIBLE
/ ity of the armature being tempered
with an extra guard was placed in the
| dynamo room.
| Haas and Wylie, the condemned men.
passed the day in reading and religious
devotions. Haas was is 10 years of age.
has been Indifferent to his fate ever
since his arrival at the annex
| The crime for which Haas was exc
cuted was a most revolving one. He
| had been employed and befriended by
| William Brader, a gardener residing at
| Cloverdale, a suburb of Cincinnati. on
| the morning of July 3, 1896. While Bra
der was absent in Cincinnati. Haas
criminaIly assaulted Mrs Brader. who
was the only other occupant of the
| house except himself, and then cut her
throat with a razor. To cover up the
crime, Haas set fire to the house and
fled, but some blackberry pickers saw
| the smoke issuing from the house in
time to prevent its burning Haas was
arrested on the afternoon of the same
day at Hamilton, o, and taken to Gin
cinnati, where by degrees a confession
was secured from him.
| William Wiley murdered his wife on
the West Side of Cincinnati twenty
days after Haas committed his crime.
| Wiley was insanely jealous of his wife,
and, as it transpired, without cause.
After a few years of unhappy domestic
| life he came home one day in q drunken
| fit and shot his wife. who died after
| being taken to a hospital. Wiley con-
cealed himself in a closet in the house
| and was wounded in a desperate fight
| with the officers who arrested him.
| An examination of the bodies after
| they had been removed to the prison
morgue did not disclose even the slight
! est abrasion or irritation of the skin
| at the points of contact and the ply
| sicians and experts pronounced the
| executions as perfect as it was possible
| to make them. The voltage was 1,1J0
in both executions, and the amperage
ranged from 81 to l..
| Haas was the first to be executed. He
| was strapped in the chair at 1925.
! When he was brought into the room he
| closely scrutinized the chair, and was
pushed into it. The current was turned
on for a period of two seconds, three
| times in succession.
AS soon as the body of Haas was ta-
ken out of the chair, Wiley was brought
in, and at 12:35 he was strapped in the
| chair.
Both executions We're eminentIy sue
| ceSSful.