The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1926-04-06
Grave RECEIVES
CHAPMAN BODY
Continued From Page y

hospital when Judge Groehl, with
tears streaming down his faace,
broke the news to the bandit that
the pardon board had denied MIN
clemency.
The condemned man did not
finch. Precipitation stood out
on his pale, high forehead, the
forehead of scholar, behind
which lurked the brain of the
outlaw. He mOpped his face with
a white handkerchief.
Il didn't expect to gain anything
for myself by my appeal to the
board Of pardons," he said. He was
stoical, almost Indifferent.
Not Afraid
Il am not afraid to die"
Chapman. not faltering. followed
the guard to the cold death-house.
He held his face close to the bars
while an officer outside struck
match from which the prisoner
lighted his cigaret. Chapman puffed
silently and reclined upon a couch
as if to rest for his journey into
eternity.
Father Michael ]. Barry came to
the cell to offer ONCE again the
spiritual consolation which Chap
man had so often refused. With
death but a few brief hours away,
he still received the priest as friend
but rejected the solace of the church.
A guard came with dinner-pork
chops, fried potatoes and coffee.
Chapman ate in silence. Perhaps "A
little of the edge was gone from his
appetite.
The Zero Hour
On through the evening the hours
vents O'Clock, o'clock, 10 O'Clock;
and two hours left. Then the clock
struck II, and finally -.
At that moment a guard came into
the cell. Chapman turned to him.
The long, slim hands with their busy
fingers were tied.
He walked in silence and with per
haps a defiant leer on his face to the
lighthouse.
There a group of officials awaited
newspaper men and others-wit-
nesses the State requires when it en-
forces the Mosaic law of life for
a life.
Chapman looked curiously over
the room, glancing at the faces in
front of him and then for a moment
ut the moose which dangled from the
ceiling aboVe-langled almost as if
reaching for him.
He was led to a spot beneath
the moose. The brillance of the
lights heightened the prison pallOr
and the spots of red in his cheeks.
His lips were tightly clenched. Not
a word did ne utter.
A guard beside him reached up to
place the hood. Chapman glanced
upward-his last sight of earth, that
of a death house ceiling.
TIE hood dropped.
A Cough
Someone coughed, a dry cough
the last thing Chapman heard on
earth.
Then there was silence.
The guard nodded to Warden H.
K. w. Scott. The nod meant all was
ready to end the life of Gerald
Chapman.
The priest raised his hand.
"May the Lord have mercy on
his SOUL" he intOned.
And hardly had the last word
been said when Warden Scott
shuffled his foot. The ropes rushed .
over pulIeys. Chapman's body
cOared high in the air and dropped
with sickening underwriting
in agony.
Life Counted Out
Quickly two doctors stepped TO his
side. watches in hand. One grasped
Chapman's wrist. The other barred
the breast to the stethoscope.
Minute after minute they stood
there-counting the seconds it took
the mortal body to cast off life.
Slower and slower grew the pulse
sixty, fifty, forty beats to the min
ute. And finally it faded away.
At pronounce this man dead" an
nounced the chief physician.
The soul of Gerald Chapman was
gone, and only the body was left.