Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-03-30

crucihx and she murmured until the end
came:
Have Mercy on My Soul.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, have mercy
on my SOUL
It might have been only few seconds
before the straps were adjusted, though
it seemed an interminable period of time
to those who sat there. A spoken word
from the state electrician, and the at
tendants, nurses and Warden Benham
stepped back from the thick rubber mat
upon which the death chair is placed.
| The hand of State Electrician Davis
traced a slow arc with the switch behind
the curtain. A half spoken prayer was
halted as the condemned woman strained
in the leather harness that bound her to
the chair.
The first contact lasted full minute.
the voltage started again to the full limit
of 1,S40 volts.
Three Currents Applied
! DIR. Germ and DR.. Spitska applied the
stethescope and deferred muscular action
and again the current passed through the
woman's body for a period of few sec
onds Once more the physicians stepped
| forward and then for the third time the
| state electrician turned on the current.
| The physicians among the states wit
nesses were called on, one after another,
to examine the woman, after which War
den Benham said:
1.-THE physicians announce that the wom-
an is dead. You will please return to my
office and sign the witness roll"
! DR.. Germ directed the prison attend
ants to remove the body to the autopsy
room. The prison physician said:
| Mrs Farmer was killed at the first
contact There was some slight muscular
movement, as is usual in electric execu-
tions, and the additional contacts were
applied until the tremors had ceased. She
was officially pronounced dead at 6:15.
j. To Examine Brain
DR.. Spitzka will make an examination
of the brain of Mrs. Farmer and after the
autopsy has been concluded the body will
be taken in charge by Father Hickey aoG
! buried in st. Joseph's cemetery, near
Owasco Lake. Father Hickey said:
| Mrs Farmer seemed anxious to obtain
the latest news from the folks at their
old home, and little, If anything, was said
about the execution. When the time came
for the final parting Mrs. Farmer said:
| Goodbye, Jim, If don't see you in this
world 1 will in the next.
| Locked in his cell in a PARKWAY corner
of the prison, Jim Farmer. the husband,
prayed during the hour of his wife's exc
cution. He will not be taken back to the
death room until Wednesday morning.
History of the Crime
Mrs Mary Farmer is the second wo-
man to meet death in the electric chair.
The crime for which she was executed
and for which her husband, James D.
Farmer. is also under sentence of death,
was the murder of Mrs. Sarah Brennan,
a neighbor, in the village of Brownsville.
I Jefferson county. about four miles from
| the city of WATERFOWL, on Thursday,
April 20, 1905
The body of Mrs. Brennan was found
on the following Monday in a trunk
owned by Mrs. Farmer and in her pos
session. Mrs. Farmer and her husband
were given separate trials, and although
| the evidence was circumstantial both
were convicted and sentenced to be cleo
trocuted. Mrs. Farmers counsel at
| tempted at the trial to establish sthat
she was insane and irresponsible for the
crime but the court of appeals declared
that it was clearly a deliberate and in
territorial act" and that there was no
circumstances that 'mitigated against its
| Nervousness"
Mrs Farmer came to this country from
Ireland in 1900 and worked for a time as
a domestic in Binghamton. going from
| there to Buffalo, where she married
James D. Farmer in 1904. Early in 1900
| they moved to Brownsville. where they
remained for a few months at one or
| Farmers relatives, after which they kept
boarders in an adjoining village In May,
1907. they moved into a portion of an ola
| building formerly used as a hotel in a
part of Brownsville known as Paddy Hill.
A Frequent Caller
! Mrs. Brennan and her husband, Pat
! rick, lived in a house nearby, which they
had occupied for twenty years and which
was owned by Mrs. Brennan. Mrs. Farm
Ell became a frequent caller at the Bren-
nan home and Mrs. Brennan occasionally
called on the Farmers. Mrs. Brennan
kept the deed to her property, insurance
papers and a savings bank book in a
black oilcloth pocketbook in a tin case in
her bedroom.
| Months before the homicide, in October,
| 1907, Mrs. Farmer went to a lawyers
Office in WATERFOWL, produced a deed OF
I the Brennan property and, impersonatine
Mrs. Brennan, had the deed transferred
to James d. Farmer, signing the. name