Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-12-30
FELL IN FAINT.
DR.. Stein Overcome by Muir
derer Whites Execution.
Horrible Scenes as the Electric Cur
rent Was Repeatedly Applied.
A Brutal Degenerate, He Paid Penalty
of His Crimes.

Auburn, n. V, Dec. 29.-Contrary to
all predictions, Frank White, colored,
who murdered his employer, George
Glare, a farmer of Oswego county,
walked to the chair without making
any demonstration, Tuesday morning,
and at 632 o'clock was officially pro-
nounced dead. This was not until six
separate contacts Of 1740 volts, 7 1-2
amperes, had been administered. Aside
from the numerous contacts necessary
the only unusual feature of the cleo
trocution was the swooning of DR..
Ulysses 3. Sem of Buffalo, who was
carried from the room unconscious.
White entered the death chamber
surrounded by keepers who We're pre-
pared for any emergency.
He looked ugly. His complexion was
of muddy yellow hue. His eyes were
not once lifted from the floor. He was
unattended by any clergyman, al
though the chaplain was with him dur
ing his last hours in his cell.
White would not make the slightest
response to his pleas for penitence.
Not a word issued from White while
in the death chamber until after the
fourth contact, when strange Surg-
ling in his throat made the physicians
step back and Mortified the spectators.
The contact was quickly repeated, but
still the stethoscopes recorded cardiac
action and two more contacts We're Civ
en-. During the second contact the
head electric flashed brilliantly and
there was an odor of burning hair.
The executioner said it was the sponge
L., - IL 10 6itysf 0d
more tightly before the next shock.
Among those who made test with
the stethoscope was Dr.. Stein and he
reported that the heart had not ceased
to beat. When he had resumed his
seat in the front row and the fifth con-
tact had been turned on, he suddenly
pitched forward and fell headlong to
the stone floor, almost through the
door of Electrician Davis cabinet.
Principal Keeper Topper had shouted
'catch him. but too late. All eyes
We're diverted from the man in the
chair to the PROSTATE form of DR..
Stein until he was carried from the
death chamber by keepers. He soon
revived and came back after the victim
had been pronounced dead.
Electrician Davis explained the
gurgling in Whites throat by saying
that he had held his breath for few
moments before the first contact and it
was simply the air escaping from his
lung. He asserted that White was
practically dead after the first contact.
Brutal and quarrelsome by nature,
White had been a dangerous degener-
ate for several years. He was born in
St. Lawrence county and was 25 years
old. His mother was white and his
father was a negro. He learned the
trade of a barber. but tired of it, NOV
in TO Oswego, where he worked in liv-
cry stables for several years before
trying farming. While thus employed
he twice attempted murder.
The crime for which he was executed
was committed, Sunday, Sept. 49, 1901.
He enticed his employer, Geo. Clare, a
farmer of Serbia, OsWego county, into
a corn field, and while his back was
turned. shot him in the back, killing
him.
White then robbed his victim and
fled to Oswego, but some fascination
drew him back to the scene of the
murder. where he was arrested and
confessed. He attempted to implicate
the wife of his victim in the murder.
He kept his watchers in suspense dur
ing his last days in the corridor for
the condemned, by his violent attempts
to sham insanity. He ran amuck in
the narrow confines of his cell on the
day before Christmas, smashing every
thing breakable and was only subdued
after the prison hose had been turned
on him for quarter of an hour. He
was afterward kept in irons and his
watch redoubled. White cared moth
in for religion. Neither friend nor
relative has inquired for him during
his days in prison.