The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1936-01-15
Figures Show
Hauptmann
Must Die
BY KENNETH T. DOWNS
international News Service

TRENTON, N. j., Jan. 15.-Even
If Bruno Richard Hauptmann gets
a reprieve from Governor Hoff-
man, he still will die in the cleo
trio chairs horrid embrace.
Statistics point this deadly con.
clusion for the condemned Lind
bergh slayer, 1t was learned today.
Statistics, the prophet and
guide Of life insurance companies,
warn that Hauptmann is an i'm.
possible "riSk," that q reprieve
will be only another tantalizing
delay in the inevitable.
Beware False Hopes
Don't let false hopes fool you,
Bruno, statistics shout: you must
die strapped in the ugly, black
chair.
For in II reprieves granted by
New Jersey governors since 1905,
when the electric chair was in
stalled in the State, only one man
lived. That man, Archibald Her
ron, Of MiddleSex County, escaped
the chair through freakish accl.
dent in 1908. He Is still in prison.
His IS fellow felonS died as they
were condemned to die, in the cleo.
trio chair.
Reprieves have been issued
grudgingly by Jersey governors.
The records show less than one re-
prieve granted for each 10 men
executed, and in those rare cases
gubernatorial mercy prevented the
death decreed by Jersey justice
only in the Heron case.
Reporter Remembers
Charles A. Leigh, the veteran
Trenton police reporter, who has
witnessed every one Of the States
116 legal electrocutions, remem.
bers the excitement caused, the
hopes raised each time q reprieve
was granted, he also remembers
how in all but the Heron case,
hope changed to hopeleSsness, how
IS reprieved men ultimately were
lifted from the chair and wheeled
out Of the execution chamber, lust
as dead as though no governor had
ever interceded in their behalf in
the first place.
One of the exciting reprieves
was that granted John Favorito,
of Bergen county, only last fall.
Governor Hoffman granted q
reprieve less than four hours
from the hour set for the execu-
ton. Hauptmann himself saw
Favorito leave the death house
on his last mile" a few weeks
ago.
The case of Archibald Heron,
the one man to cheat death
here through a reprieve. is one
Of the strangest stories the State
prison has.
HOary Old Man
On July 90, 1908, Heron was
sentenced to die for the senSa-
tional murder fof the Rev.
Samuel B. D. Prickett, a retired
minister who became q police
Judge. Heron. Infatuated when
found guilty Of disorderly con-
duct, snstched out pistol and
shot the reverend judge right
off the bench.
When all of Herron's appeals
and pleas for clemency failed, as
Hauptmann's have, he was finally
resentenced to die during the last
week Of January, 1909.
Just before he was to have died,
Governor Fort gave him two 30
day reprieves. Nothing happened.
The governor gave him a third re-
prieve to have his sanity tested.
He was found sane. There was
nothing left for him but death.
But while he was waiting for his
formal resentencing, his trial
judge, Justice James J. Bergen,
died.
Under the State law, the Judge
who originally passes a death sen.
tence must pass any reSentence Of
death. So, with Judge Bergen
dead, Heron was never executed.
Heron, now q hoary old man
full of blurred memories Of the
world as 1t was in 1909, still lives
in the State prison within q
stones throw Of Hauptmann In
the death house. He is 76 now
and his cell is his world.