The star-independent. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1904-1917, 1915-02-23
new death CHAIR
INITIATED TO-DAY
Continued From First Page.

Continued From First Page
his face lifted and shining, scarlet
stole folded in his left hand against
his breast.
As Second Shock Was Turned on
At the second shock tiny corkscrew
of blue smoke as faint as that which
might arise from cigarette, went up
from the left leg of the man in the
chair and drifted up through the metal
dome above the chair. The priest re.
NAMED motionless on his knees and
only when the spry young doctor with
his stethoscope stepped forward and
said, Gentlemen, pronounce this man
dead,' did he arise. He moved to
the stone bench with the other wit
nesses, slipped his crucifix under his
long cassock and finally left the room.
The priest had spent the entire night
in the doomed mans cell. Talap had
confessed the murder. When he entered
the room a 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 re-
ply.
Engine of Death Set in Motion
Warden Francis was not witness at
the execution. Prison keepers are usual
ly opposed to capital punishment. The
deputies and the experts who installed
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 muffied uproar pene-
trated upward through the steel and
concrete floor.
Talap who at that instant was on his
knees stopped praying to cry. He re-
fused to eat any breakfast. 1t was
eleven and half minutes after seven
when the chief keeper of the death
house entered his cell.
cts time, John,' he said. eyes, +"
said Talap, uncertain and looked at the
priest.
The March to Fatal Chair
"This way, john" the priest said,
and the march began over the twenty
one feet of corridor that intervencs
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 de-
tective and under the eye of Sheriff
Schwartz, of Montgomery county.
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,
planted to the right of the door. Then
he looked down and got his first sight
of the terrible instrument. He permit
ted the attendants to pack him to the
seat in the chair. He sat with his head
thrown back and his eyes partly closed
for about forty seconds before his face
was hidden by the leather mask.
Arrangements Quickly Completed
The last buckle was fixed in one min
ute and ten seconds. A hurried re-ex-
animation of every strap and buckle
took fifty seconds. A deputy warden s
handkerchief flashed behind his back
and then man at the switchboard i'm.
mediately behind the chair to the right
snapped switch.
Talap's body was taken to the
autopsy room. After the usual exami-
nation it was turned over to Belle
fonte undertaken and will be buried at
Norristown. Talap's two children, who
live in Norristown, did not visit him
after his sentence. He shot his wife,
he said, because of jealousy.
Andrew Malinowski, of Pittsburgh,
also sentenced for wife murder, is an
occupant of a death cell He was SEN
fenced to be executed this week but at
the last minute was granted reprieve
to March 2S.
Others to Be Electrocuted
A number of other men now under
sentence of death in this State will be
brought from the various counties to
the Rockview death house and will be
dispatched.
There is a possibility that some
change may be made in the death house
in order to bring the power from an
outside plant and thus obviate the pre-
iminary horrors that attend the start
ing up of the power plant in the build
ing itself. The chair is in a room 26x
20 feet of steel and concrete which has
no other article of furniture.
A Philadelphia electrician pulled the
switch that sent the current into Talap
in order to make action certain. He
represented the contractors and, accord.
ing to the rule, his name was withheld
by the authorities.