Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1906-06-15
TUCKER SUFFERS
DEATH PENALTY.
Slayer of Mabel Page Walks Bravery
to Massachusetts, Electric
Chair.

BOSTON. Mass, June 12.-Charles L.
Tucker was e!ectrocuted at 12:l2 TINS
morning for the murder of Mabel Page.
Three applications of the current were
made and at 1919 he was pronounced
dead.
When Tucker arrived the death chair
he read this statement:
I hope that God will forgive me for all
the wrongs l have ever done III my PAST
life. l forgive everybody who mas WronSeu
ME. ! am at peace with my maker h'V
God have mercy on my soul.
After the first application of the cleo
tricity, Dr. Joseph Mclaughlin, the prls-
on surgeon. made an examination ana
announced that the pulse was still peat,
ing After the current had been applled
a second time, the surgeon detected
movement of the heart but when the
current was applied a third time Tucker
was pronounced dead. The surgeon
stated that Tucker was unconscious from
the moment the first shock was sustained
The condemned man walked from ms
cell to the death chair unassisted, with
out faltering. The prison guards had
opened his cell door and said: tucker,
we are ready" The condemned man
stepped quickly from his cell and scarce
ly before the legal witnesses to the eX-
ecution, who numbered six persons, had
hand, he had appeared before them IN
advance of the Jail officials.
Deliberate to the End.
Just before reaching the electric chair
Tucker drew from the right hand pocket
of his trousers a piece of paper. From
this paper he read mechanically, and i'll
a tone SO low the witnesses could hear
but a few of the words. The exact
phraseology was only learned when the
paper, which Tucker replaced in his
pocket with wonderful deliberation and
calmness after he had finished reading,
was removed from his clothing after his
death. This was fuckers final utter
ance.
After Tucker had placed this document
IN his pocket he turned quickly, glanced
toward the death chair and then, feel
ing for his foot rest, he closed his eyes
and did not open them again. The med
lcal witnesses agreed that Tucker was
unconscious if not quite dead at the very
moment that the 1920 volts of electricity
passed through him.
The electrocution of Tucker marked
the final chapter in the history of the
murder of Mabel Page at her home in
Weston, March 81, 1904 and also
marked the close of the most desperate
legal battle ever waged in Massachusetts,
fuckers case was taken through to
hearing in the supreme court of the
ing of the lower courts, but did not dis
courage fuckers lawyers A petition
to GOV. Guild was prepared and circu-
lated throughout the state In a short
time there We're over 10000 names at
tached to it. The attorneys had not
only new evidence, but general plea for
executive clemency and affidavits, but
they were not successful.
Story of Mabel Page Murder.
Mabel Page was murdered at her ia
TIERS home i'll Weston on March 81
1904. Her body was found several hours
later by her aged father. On nearby
table was found a note, supposed to have
been written by Miss Page. stating that
she had been called to Boston because
of the illness of her brother. 1t later
developed that her brother, Harold. was
not i'll and the handwriting on the note
and a postal card which was also found
i'll the house figured in the trial, the gov
ernment contending that the handwriting
as shown on the postal card was lden-
teal with specimens of fuckers hand
writing.
The police learned that Charles L.
Tucker, an Auburndale young man of
rowing habits. had been seen near the
Page house on the day of the murder.
They found Tucker and on taking him
to police station questioned him but
released him. About three weeks after
ward the officers searched fuckers home.
There, in an old coat, they found brOk-
en- knife blade stained and scared, the
scars indicating that an effort had been
made to destroy it by means of file.
Stick Pin Is Important.
4 stick pin of peculiar design was also
found. 1t was soon learned that Mabel
Page had owned Il pin similar to that.
Indictment for murder in the first degree
followed. The evidence at the trial was
largely of a circumstantial nature and
counsel for the defense produced wit
nesses and maps to prove an alibi, but
the pin and the knife played more prom
inent parts than did any witness.
Since fuckers trial and conviction Ed
win Page the father of the murdered
girl. has died, as has PROB E. S. Wood
of Harvard university. who was the ex-
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