Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-02-23
IRENE SCHROEDER
CALM AS SHE GOES
TO DEATH IN CHAIR
Dague Executed Three Min
utes After GunWoman Is
Pronounced Dead.
REQUEST TO HALT FIGHT
FOR LIFE is DISCLOSED
Doomed Mans Letter, Dated Yes
terday, Said They Did Not Want
Prison Term Now"
b the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
ROCKVIEW PENITENTIARY, Belle
fonte, Pa, February 23.-Calm and
collected Irene Schroeder and Walter
Glenn Dague went to their deaths in
the electric chair at Rockview Peniten-
tiary today just after break of dawn.
The State claimed of them the SUI
preme price for the killing Of guard
ian of its highways.
The woman went to the chair FIRST,
at 7 am. One contact was made and
she was pronounced dead at 7:o5.
Dague was placed in the chair at
1908, and five minutes later was dead.
Dague Canes at Witnesses.
Mrs. Schroeder's face was pale, al
most ghastly, except for a slight bit OF
rouge on either cheek, as she was
brought into the death chamber. Her
eyes we're open until she was seated
in the big chair; then she closed
them and kept them closed until the
death hood was placed over her head.
Dague came in with steady stride
and as he sat down in the chair gazeo
left and right at the witnesses. Then
the hood was adjusted, ana the electrlc
contact was made while the prison
chaplain still was offering up a prayer
for the condemned.
Neither of the slayers spoke, nor was
any word spoken to them.
Retains Iron Nerve.
The woman who once welded a gun
with her gunman lover in lnerclless
bloodshed, was as unf1inching at her
doom as ever she had been during her
days of banditry and subsequent flight
and fight for life.
Disclosure that Mrs. Schroeder and
Dague had asked their counsel not to
take steps to obtain further stay CT
sentence because we do not want lie
imprisonment now" was contained in q
letter written by Dague and made
public by the Rev. H. o. Teagarden
Dague revealed himself in the letter
As a man who had spurned a call to
"consecrate my life 70 the service Of
God" back in october. 1917.
In his letter dated February ~
Dague wrote to the Rev. Mr.. Tea:
garden. He said that he "had the call
from God to consecrate my life to his
service" at time when the minister
was in the pulpit at his church N
Dallas. w. Va.
Daeue recalled that the minister had
asked If there was "a young man here
who will consecrate himself to God.
God Is calling, and he does not
answer" Dague quoted Mr.. Teagardsn
as saying. That man viii sink 70 the
depths Of hell"
He could not have known that was
that young man, Dague wrote.
Iron Irene" they termed Mrs:
Schroeder at her trial. Iron Irene"
she was until the end. The spirit
that bore her up when the jury
in the Lawrence County courts pro-
nounced death as her sentence, held
with her as she walked into the grim
chamber of death here and surrendered
her life for the life of Corp. Brady Paul
OF the State Highway Patrol, on De-
cember 81, 1929.
She was clad in gray, artificial SIX
dress, loose and poorly fitting. She wore
biege stockings and black slippers. Tne
hair was clipped away from the back OF
her head at a spot where an electrooe
was attached.
With a guard holding either arm and
a matron preceding her, the woman
walked into the death chamber, appar-
emily not needing the slight support the
guards gave her. She walked into the
brighter circle of light cast by huge
food lamp over the chair, and in the
States grim instrument of death the
guards placed her, and quickly fastened
the straps binding her to it. The matron
stepped aside TO wall Of the chamber
Chaplain Offers Prayer.
AS she sat, the woman's fingers trem-
bled q triie. The only human voice in
the cold, gray chamber was that Of the
chaplain offering a prayer for the
doomed woman.
The straps and death hood were ad-
tusted, the voice of the chaplain whis-
pered on, and even before he had COM
pleted his words the contact was made.
The woman's body rose up against the
straps that bound her, fists clenched,
the body tense and struggling.
Robert Elliott, the States executioner,
was at the switches controlling the cur
CONTINUED on Page 2, Column D.
TW0 RIIM RUNNERS