The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-01-01
ELECTRIC
Chair w aitino,
tor Occupant.
NO MORE HANGING.
The New Appliances and
Their Use.

With the passing of the old year, the
hanging of criminals in Massachusetts
becomes obsolete; the only universally
used relic of the barbaric ages sinks
into oblivion and will be superseded by
the modern science-electrocutio The
gallows that have been used in the
different jails will be taken down and
either destroyed or presented to histori-
cal societies of antiquity, who may wish
to preserve evidences of the fact that
people who lived in the latter part of
the 18th century were not as enlight-
ened as they might have been.
Dominick Krathofski, who paid the
penalty of his crime on the gallows at
Springfield, Friday, is the last man who
will ever be hanged in this state. The
next murderer will be sentenced by the
judge who presides at his trial, to be
Killed by sufficiently powerful current
OF electricity at the old state prison in
CharlestoWn. The hanging at Spring.
field Friday attracted no end of atten-
ton in different parts of the state. ow-
ing to the fact that it was the last, and
the public have oentered their atten-
ton upon the new way of getting rid
or men who follow in Gains footsteps
and kill their brethren.
The question of the hour is: ''WiI
electricity prove to be a humane and
decent method of carrying out the laws
OF the commonwealth by depriving the
person who takes the life of another
or his own life?"
The experience that New York state
ofllcials have had with electricity as a
death-dealing instrument has proven to
the satisfaction of physicians of stand
ing IN all parts of the country, that if
is far superior to the galloWs or the
gulllotine, and that it is the only hu-
name method that can be adopted TO
punish the crime of murder.
Inc last legislature passed the cleo
trocutlon law after many heated de-
Dates, and Gov. Roger Wolcott signed
the document without question or com
ment. The law took effect immediataI,-
upon its passage, April 10; 1898. But tbS
slate prison officials We're given uni
Jan. l, 1899. to erect a suitable buiIdine.
ana make all necessary preparations
Inc electrocution law is an interest
ing article at the present time. 1t is
slYen in part below:
In pronouncing sentence of death
upon person convicted of a capitaI
crime, the court shall appoint a
week within which such sentence
snail be executed.
w men a person is sentenced to
the punishment Of death he shall
pe coIlIned in Jail or prison in the
county IN which such sentence is
pronounced until within ten DAYS of
the nrst day of the week appointed
for the execution Of the sentence.
lie shall be conveyed as secretly
as possible by the sheriff to the
state prison, and no person shall see
nun m put the officers Of the prison,
ms counsel his physician. a priest
or minister of religion, if he shall
family u lis
The execution of the sentence
snail be executed by the warden or
persons acting under his direction
Inc punishment of death shall
De inflicted within an enclosure or
building. provided for the purpose.
adjoining the state prison.
The punishment of death shall
IN every case be inflicted by causino
to pass through the body of tbe CON-
wet a current of electricity of sufFi
Gent intensity to cause death and
the Application of such current must
dead. oii' ~ -
tor the expenses Of constructing
such building and providing such
appLances, including the necessary
COnnPr-
tlon herewith, a sum not exceeding
seven thousand five hundred dollars
shall be allowed and paid ont 81
the treasury of the commonwealth"
This law repeaJs all former cbapters
relating to capital punishment.
folIoWlng the instructions given in
the law, Warden Bridges of the state
prison started the construction of a
suitable execution" house on the pris-
on GROUNDS; The building is completed
and ready for the death dealing electric
apparatus. The execution house is
isolated from the other portions of the
prison. 1t is an unpretentious two
story brick structure, and is so far
away from the other convicts that a
man might be sent to the other world
every "a hours and they not he cog
INFANT of what was going on.
On the ground floor Of the new struc-
ture will be placed the boilers, engine