Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-02-23
TALAP FIRST TO MEET
DEATH IN NEW CHAIR
[Continued from First Page

LOOANsA-eANNa u
song came from the wall apparatus,
the sound of the automatic whirring
switch that dropped the charge gradu-
ally to 500 volts in six seconds.
At 1921 DR.. r. j. Campbell, one of
the resident physicians at the New
Jersey State Penitentiary. pronounced
Talap dead. Twenty-three persons, in
cluding witnesses, newspapermen and
attendants, saw the man die.
Talap was convicted of numbering
his wife at Norristown in August 1918.
He was about 38 years old.
Priest Precedes Condemned
Talap's death was staged in gray,
bare room and had one stately ac-
compartment. He was preceded into
the death chamber by tall straight
shouldered young priest. This was the
Rev. Antonio Ulanitizky who presides
over Greek parish, at Remey. Pa.
The priest. the one calm man present,
strobe into the room, dropped to his
knees on mat at the feet of the con-
demned man and with a smile like a
childs lifted his crucifix before the
anguished eyes of the victim. There
he held it even after the heavy leather
mask had been fitted over the mans
face. No tremor of emotion touched
the priests countenance Even after
the first shock flung the body of the
condemned man outward against the
straps with a snap like whip crack,
he remained motionless on his knees,
his face lifted and shining, a scarlet
stole folded in his left hand against
his breast.
Priest Remains MotionIess
At the second shock a tiny cork
screw of blue smoke as faint as that
which might arise from cigaret, went
up from the ie1t Ieg of the man in
the chair and drifted up through the
metal dome above the chair. The
priest remained motionless on his
knees and only when the spry young
doctor with his stethescope, stepped
forward and said, Gentlemen, | pro-
nounce this man dead" did he arise.
He moved to the stone bench with the
other witnesses, slipped his crucifiX
under his long casSock and finally left
the room.
The priest had spent the entire
night in the doomed mans cell. TaIap
had confessed the murder. When he
entered the room foot or two ahead
Of the doomed man he was whispering
the litany for the dead
God have mercy on me, Christ have
mercy on me-" Talap whispered in
reply.
Warden Francies was not a witness
usually opposed to capital punishment
The deputies and the experts who In
stalled the chair and the general
equipment had spent most of the night
grooming the great gasoline engine in
the power room Immediately under
the row of six death cells.
Every circuit had been tested. When
the power plant was set going at $50
this morning the muffled uproar pene-
trated upward through the steel and
concrete floor.
Stops Praying to Cry
Talap who at that instant was on
his knees stopped praying to cry. He
refused to eat any breakfast 1t was
eleven and a half minutes after seven
when the chief keeper of the death
house entered his cell.
It's time, john" he said. Yes, -
said Talap, uncertain and looked at
the priest.
This way, John" the priest said
and the march began over the 81 feet
of corridor that intervenes between
the six death cells and the chair.
Talap had cried during most of the
night. He refused to sleep. He had
been brought up from the Norristown
Jail last Monday handcuffed to a de-
tective and under the eye of Sheriff
Schwartz, of Montgomery county.
In Chair in Few Minutes
Talap following Immediately on the
heels of the young priest, walked
wearily and seemed to have difficulty
in moving his feet. A deputy warden
supported him at each elbow. A touch
on his arm wheeled him to the chair,