Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1903-11-06
THE MAN WHO ELEcTRocUTEs.


THE MAN WHO ELEcTRocuTEs.
Looks Upon His Calling In a Purely
Business Way.
When he killed the Van Wormer
boys in the state prison at Dannemora
last week state electrician, Edward 4.
Davis finished his 74th execution by
electricity. OF these II occurred in this
state, two in Massachusetts, and one In
Ohio.
This man, who invented the electric
chair, owns the patent on It and is the
only man who can absolutely be de-
pended. upon to conduct an execution
respects. Thus. wherever he goes he
Hocks by himself. He rarely speaks to
anybody unless he Is spoken to first,
and then he Is found to be a most at
fable person, more than anxious to
talk about himself and his work.
He win cheerfuliy answer any ques-
ton put to him. no matter how per-.
sonal it may be. About his work he
is absolutely cold blooded.
He looks upon an execution as a mat
ter Of business, nothing else. In this
he reminds one very much of little
Joe Atkinson, the old Tombs hangman,
who was as cheerful an executioner as
one would care to meet.
cd II n Ia III fhoGn
men," said Mr.. Davis just after the Van
Wormer execution, to an inquirer.
1.-THE people Of the state Of New York,
acting through a Judge and jury, kill
them.
II am simply the instrument Of the
law. I work the machinery by which
the state of New York takes the lives
Of murderers."
Davis is little, gray haired man OF
sixty. Ask New York politician who
is the hardest man to find in the city
and he will tell you Tim Sullivan. Ask
a state official at Albany, especially
Superintendent Of Prisons Collins, who
Is the hardest man in the state to find
and he will tell you it is Davis.
Davis is living mystery. He slips
from place to place, never maintaining
residence in q given locality for any
length Of time and rarely letting any
body know where he is.
Every once in while he appears
suddenly in Albany, maps out his
work for the next few months, and then
goes away again, whittier nobody
knows. He can be absolutely depend
ed upon, however, to put in an appear
ance at a state prison where there Is
to be an execution several days before
it Is to take place.
He goes right to the death chamber
and gets everything in readiness, and
after the execution he goes away as
silently and as mysteriously as he
came.
The state pays Davis $3.50 for each
man he kills. It has tried repeatedly
to buy his patents, but he will not sell.
II he should die there are probably
plenty Of men who would be able to
work his apparatus, but It would be
more or less Of an experiment, even If
an electrician willing to do the work
could be found.
Davis's mysterious movements are
attributed by some to fear Of assas-
sination. Davis was asked about this
recently and laughed heartily. He re-
ceives many threatening letters, he
said; but pays no attention to them.
The night before an execution Davis
goes to bed very early and leaves word
that every precaution is to be taken
not to have any noise around his room.
He sleeps like a top and wakes UP
bright and early.
His work in the death chamber, out
side of preparing the apparatus, Is very
slight. He looks on while the keepers
strap the man in, then puts his hand
on the switch and at signal turns on
the current He never leaves. the
switch after the first shock until the
man in the chair is officially declared
dead.
Very naturally, some people haye an
aversion to Davis because he Is the
state executioner. Far from being an
noyed by this, Davis is rather amused.
At a recent execution Davis took
dinner at a hotel near the prison. Sew
eral regular boarders at the hotel re-
fused to sit at the table with him, pre-
ferring to wait until he was through.
Davis calmly ate his dinner, reading
his paper the while, and then smoked
two cigars while the hungry boarders
waited for him to get away.
Davis has no assistant. He does his
work alone, and, unpleasantly as the
work may seem he certainly does 1t
well-New York Sun.