New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-07-31
Prayer on Lips Cut
Short by Deadly
Current.
NO BUNGLING,
OFFICIALS SAY
Killed in Six Minutes by
Three Shocks Through
Powerful Frame.
BODY TAKEN TO HOME
Haynes, Negro Murderer Of
Woman, Executed After Rosen.
thalS Death Is Avenged.
By LEWIS WOOD.

By LEWIS WOOD.
Charles Becker kept his promise.
He died like a man. No tremor
shook his big frame as he walked
to the electric chair early yester-
day. Even when he was pinioned
IN the chair itself, his powerful
arms strapped down, his domelike
chest buckled in, he was still out
wardly strong. In low but never
theless firm tones he repeated with
Father Cashin the prayers for his
soul, even to that last sentence
whose period was the electric cur
rent that snuffed out his life.
He was not altogether the same
strong Becker who had fought so
increasingly for life through three
weary years of prison, who had
been so adamantine in spirit, even
in the cramped cell of the death
house. Knowing how close he was
to his end, the man had to summon
his tremendous reserve power to
maintain his cold calm.
The terrific strain of the last
three days had told on him. And
when he came at last to the chair
he felt the terror of it. This was
not so much the attitude of an in
dividual Becker. It was the At
t:tude of any man about TO be done
to death.
TooE Six Minutes to Kill.
1t took six minutes 70 kill Becker.
Three times the electricity famed
through his body before his strong
heart ceased TO beat beneath the plet-
ure of his wife he carried with him to
the chair and 10 the grave. But. no
matter how strong a man may be. the
electric current can kill him. And
eleven minutes after Becker walked
into the execution chamber two prison
keepers carried the once proud police
lieutenant, limp as an empty mea! sack.
out Of the room and laid him. dead. on
a dissecting table.
Becker made no verbal statement be-
fore ne was executed. lie remained
silent. save for the prayers he re-
heated. However, in lieu Of verbal
statement, an hour before his death he
sent out from his cell the words hs
had hoped to speak.
I'm the presence OF my God and
your God | proclaim my absolute in
nocence of the foul crime for which
must die" he wrote.
/ And linked close TO this was his
/ diving tribute 70 the gallant. unfinch'
ing little fighter who has stood beside
him so stanchly. Becker wrote in his
statement:
And now, on the brink OF the grave
declare to the world that | am proud
TO have been the husband OF thu
purest, noblest woman that ever lived
Helen Becker"
The erstwhle czar Of the Tenderloir
was quite prepared for death. those
who knew him best say. Father Curry
said Yesterday, as he sat in his rock
( ing chair on Father Cashin's porch
"Charlie was like little twelve-year'
old schoolboy to-day. He was as
tractable as a child"
Rancor Gone at Last.
And to the same white-headed priest
the condemned man had said early in
the morning hours: God must have
some wise design. father. must be
diving for some purpose OF God.
don't know what that purpose is. but
il is sufficient for me that God knows
Maybe die for the sake Of human
ity."
In his final statement. even with its
stout assertion of innocence. the
rancor Of Becker's other written words
was missing. "May Almighty God par
don every one who has contributed in
any degree 70 my untimely death" was
what he scribbled with a pencil on
rough note paper.
As usual with those grim affairs. thu
execution itself took but small time.
All the hours OF waiting. OF suspense
and anxiety were swept away in brief
eleven minutes. Becker entered the
execution chamber at exactly 5:i2 a. m.
At $3.50 a. m. DR.. Charles W. Farr. the
prison doctor. pronounced the man
dead And two hours afterward the
monotonous routine of the great
prison was grinding on as usual.
The two benches in the execution
! .hamAar wsra hllad mariana two min