Throughout History, there were a number of executions that were performed that went wrong.
During the Tudor period, many high profile people were executed by axe, including Thomas
Cromwell the Chief advisor of Henry VIII. Henry had turned on Cromwell following his
failed fourth marriage, and the axeman it was said made a very poor job of taking Cromwell’s
head, and it was so, Cromwell ‘"So paciently suffered the stroke of the axe, by a ragged
and Boocherly miser, which very ungoodly perfourmed the office.’ Further problems emerged in
the year after as Margaret Pole the Countess of Salisbury inside the walls of the Tower
of London was executed by an inexperienced executioner who allegedly took 11 swings of
the axe at the elderly lady, to administer the bloody justice of Henry VIII’s land.
However even in more recent times there have been problems with executions that have been
administered, and one man who’s execution did not go well was William Kemmler who was
the first man to be executed using the electric chair. But was botched. Join us today as we
look at this, and remember to support our channel, please make sure to subscribe.
William Francis Kemmler was born in Philadelphia in 1860, and his parents had come from Germany
to settle in America, but they were both alcoholics. William did not get on at school and at the
age of 10 he left school and could not read or write, and after this he then began to
work in the butcher’s shop owned by his father. His father died following a drunken
brawl and his mother then died from issues caused by her alcoholism, and with this he
was left without parents. After this he worked selling goods often door to door, and he then
raised enough money to buy a horse and cart. But then he fell into the same problems and
issues that his parents suffered from, having issues with alcohol, and he often went on
drunken binges with his friends. During one of these he was dared by his friends to jump
his horse and cart over a fence which was 8 feet tall, and this failed destroying his
cart and all the goods he was carrying. He was simply a bit of a fool, and was known
as ‘Philadelphia Billy’ and he would frequent many of the pubs and bars in the local Buffalo
area.
However William Kemmler would then delve into deeper crime, and he would be accused of being
involved in the murder of Matilda Tillie Ziegler, his common law wife. She had been brutally
killed with a hatchet or an axe. The New York Times reported the murder saying, ‘William
Kemmler was a vegetable peddler in the slums of Buffalo, New York. An alcoholic, on March
29, 1889, he was recovering from a drinking binge the night before when he became enraged
with his girlfriend [elsewhere referred to as his common-law wife] Tillie Ziegler. He
accused her of stealing from him and preparing to run away with a friend of his. When the
argument reached a peak, Kemmler calmly went to the barn, grabbed a hatchet, and returned
to the house. He struck Tillie repeatedly, killing her. He then went to a neighbor's
house and announced he had just murdered his girlfriend.’ It was then said that, ‘Kemmler's
resulting murder trial proceeded quickly. He was convicted of first degree murder on
May 10. Three days later he was sentenced to death, destined to be the first person
executed in an electric chair under New York's new execution law replacing hanging with electrocution.
A chair was ready at the Auburn state prison. However, the leading developers of electrical
power, including George Westinghouse, did not want to see their new product used in
this manner. A lawyer filed an appeal claiming the electric chair violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibition
of cruel and unusual punishment.
New York had brought in death by electrocution following the developments of the technology,
and William Kemmler was the first man who was sentenced to death in this way. It was
decided that his execution would take place at Auburn Prison in New York with the device
which was invented in 1881 by a dentist named Alfred Southwick. The Electric Chair in particular
used in this case was developed over 9 years, and it was believed to be ready to be used
to take the lives of people. An appeal was lodged to try and change the death sentence,
as it was believed that it was un-necessary and cruel being an unusual method of sentencing
someone to death, but this was rejected.
On the 6th August 1890, William Kemmler was woken up at 5am in his prison cell and he
was told he was going to be killed. He was told to get dressed quickly and he wore a
suit with a white shirt and a necktie, and following breakfast and visiting a priest
for prayer, he had his head shaved by prison guards ready for the electric chair. At 6:38
he was taken into the execution chamber, and a prison warden told the 17 witnesses his
name, and showed them Kemmler. He then looked at the electric chair and said ‘Gentleman
I wish you all good luck, I believe I am going to a good place, and I am ready too go.’
Witnesses claimed that William Kemmler was rather laid back and relaxed to go to his
death, and he did not resist he just submitted to the guards. He then sat on the chair, but
was then told to stand by the warden so a hole in his suit could be cut so a second
electrical lead could be attached to him, and then he sat down and was strapped to the
chair. His face was covered and a metal restraint was placed on his head. He said ‘Take it
easy and do it properly I’m in no hurry,’ and the executioner then bid him farewell,
and ordered the switch to be turned on.
The electrical generate which was charged to 1000 volts was believed to be enough to
knock Kemmler out and then stop his heart, and it had been tested the day before. The
current passed through Kemmler for 17 seconds, and then Kemmler was declared dead by a physician,
however the witnesses saw that he was still breathing, and the doctors then went to examine
him further, and they said he was still alive. It was then decided to give him a second bolt
of electricity, this time with 2000 volts, twice what he received before. When he was
given this, it was said that the witnesses saw a horrific site. Kemmler’s blood vessels
under his skin ruptured and bled, and some claimed that his body then caught fire. It
was reported in the New York Times that, ‘an awful odor began to permeate the death chamber,
and then as though to cap the climax of this fearful sight, it was seen that the hair under
and around the electrode on the head and flesh under and around the electrode at the base
of the spine was singeing, the stench was unbearable.’
The execution took 8 minutes and was barbaric, and many witnesses had to leave the room because
of the horrifying sight they saw. Following his death, doctors discovered that the blood
vessels under the skull had carbonised and his brain had hardened. But the electric chair
following this first execution was considered a brutal method of execution, and many could
not work out why this was being used over more established methods such as hanging,
and some even claimed that using the medical axe would have been more effective and reliable.
But William Kemmler’s execution today its remembered for being the first to be carried
out on the electric chair, but this did not go well at all.
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