Evening star., 1927-08-23
bUzZER AND LIGHT
BRING DEATH NEWS
Witness at Execution Phones
Flashes From Prison
Room for Press.
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
CHARLESTOWN STATE PRISON,
Boston. August 23.--The flash of q
grinly switchboard lamp and the i'm
perative rasp of buZzer at II min
utes past midnight this morning were
the first indications to the world out
side the death house of this institu'
ton that the execution of Nicola Sac
co. Bartolomeo NanZetti and Celes-
tino Madeiros was under way.
Stepping to the wall telephone in
the death house the moment Madeiros
was pronounced dead. w. L. Playfair,
Associated Press representative who
witnessed the execution as the repre-
sentative of all the press, lifted the re-
ceiver from the hook to be answered
Immediately by another member of his
organization seated at the main prison
switchboard.
''Madeiros. Twelve, zero, two. four,
seven. Twelve. zero, nine. three. 1--WE
News Flashed to Press.
AS the name and figures sprawled
out across a sheet OF copy paper un-
der the flying pencil of the switch
board operator a telegraph operator
seated at his side tapped them across
100 yards of wire TO a waiting army
of newspaper men in the temporary
pressroom established in the prison
recreation hall-and matter of sec
onds later the news was being flashed
all over the world that Madeiros had
entered the death chamber at min-
utes and AZ seconds past midnight and
had been pronounced dead at min
utes and 35 seconds past the hour
A wait of 10 minutes at the switch
board, filled with outside calls" from
high officials and the lowly curious
all asking news of the execution. and
again the tiny lamp under the board
connection marked DIR" death room)
winked a summons.
"Sacco. Twelve, one, one, one. two.
Twelve, one. nine, zero, two. He made
q brief speech of farewell to his
family"
Again the pencil raced across the
sheet, again the telegraph instru-
ment-muffled so as not to carry to
the tier on tier of cells rising through
the rotunda just outside the telephone
room-stuttered it's message of Sacco's
death to the outside world, adding the
detail of his farewell words.
Inquiries Fill Waits.
Another wait, this time minutes.
again filled with requests for news.
They came from city and State Off
cials, district police stations, the East
Cambridge Jail, the Boston airport.
hotels and from individuals as far
away as Chicago.
Four times the voice of the chair
man of the 'Sacco-Vanzetti defense
committee was recognized in the
query:
Have the executions taken place
yet?"
Twice the phone room door opened
and y the rotunda guard stuck his
head in.
"Any more?"
1.-TWO gone. Vanzetti to come"
The door closed as the DIR" lamp
again blinked on. The name Van
zetti, another row of figures and the
clipped phrase: "He made a short
speech protesting his innocence" and
the flash news" Of the execution was
over.
The death house signal lighted once
more, however. and the curt request:
Power house. came over the wire.
1t was the final message from the exc
cution chamber, but it did not go to
the waiting newspaper men. 1t was
an order to cut off the. generator that
had supplied the current for the cleo
tric chair. It's use for the night was
at an end.