Believe it or not, there is a fairly long list of people who have survived their executions.
We might look at the case of William Duell, a 17-year old English boy who was hanged in
1740 in London and came back to life as he was about to be dissected.
He was later exiled to North America.
Then you had John Babbacombe Lee, another Englishman, nicknamed “The Man They Couldn’t
Hang” after surviving three executions.
More recently you had the case of Romell Broom, an American man sentenced to death by lethal
injection.
He survived that, ended up writing a book called “Survivor on Death Row”, but it
seems he spoke too early as he is scheduled for another execution in 2020.
But today we’ll talk about one of the best known survivor stories, in this episode of
the Infographics Show, Death row inmate who survived his own execution.
As we said, a handful of people have survived their executions.
You can read quite recent cases, too, such as American inmate Doyle Lee Hamm, who was
said to have experienced “torturous and traumatic hours in the execution chamber”
before staff admitted they had failed.
The U.S. media reported in 2017 that a man called Alva Campbell became the third man
to survive an execution in the country in recent decades and that was just a matter
of the execution team not being able to find a vein in which to inject the lethal drugs.
But perhaps the tale we are about to tell you now is the most moving as the person that
survived was only 17 years old.
It’s also the first case of someone surviving the electric chair in the USA.
If you’ve seen our show on Old Sparky, you’ll know that executions in the early days could
certainly be horrific to watch, but eventually the inmates succumbed to the shock.
That was not the case for 17-year old Willie Francis.
First let’s have a look at what events led to him ending up in the chair.
Francis was a young, poor, African American in 1946, and at the time of his lucky escape
many people believed the “hand of God” had interrupted this macabre spectacle of
official murder.
For one thing, he was just so young and a lot of people decried the execution of a boy
not yet a man, and another thing was the fact the American justice system at the time could
have been said to be harsh for certain people of certain races and certain social standing.
He lived in a place called St. Martinville, located in southwestern Louisiana.
You can read articles about this place in the 40s, with one saying the town had, “two
sections, one for the white people and the other for the colored.
The white tend to their own business and the colored tend to theirs.’’
Yes, this was a time when racism was pervasive in some parts of the U.S. and despite the
backwards attitudes of some people, there was a lot of support for young Willie when
he was condemned to death.
After the botched execution attempt, Francis wrote from his prison cell, “‘A lot of
people write to me and ask me to tell them something about what I did when I was young.
I am only eighteen now, so I guess they mean when I was very young.’’
But what had he done?
One of thirteen children, Francis said life was hard as a kid, but wrote he had fond memories
of the hard knock life, playing baseball with a broomstick handle and going out with friends
causing mischief.
When he got older he was given a job by a man called Andrew Thomas.
Thomas owned the local drugstore, hiring Francis to do errands and keep the store tidy.
They apparently got along, and Francis was called a nice boy and cooperative by folks
who visited the store.
He was, however, called illiterate by some, or at least close to that.
Others said he was slow, but later when Francis was writing from his prison cell it was proven
that he could not just write, but express himself in a deep and meaningful way.
We are telling you this because this case was very controversial, and at the time and
for years after, people tried to understand why this seemingly nice kid committed a murder.
That murder was of the drugstore owner, Thomas.
When her son was convicted of slaying his boss, the mother told the press, “There
wasn’t no bad in him.
I just don’t understand.”
Quite a few thought that this young boy, perhaps somewhat mentally challenged, had admitted
guilt to something he didn’t do- the murder of Andrew Thomas, described as “a handsome,
educated bachelor with his own successful business.”
He was killed at his home during the night of November 7, 1944.
His body was discovered the next day, splayed on the floor near the house steps.
Two witnesses, Alvin and Ida Van Brocklin, had said that they heard gunshots in the night.
They didn’t see who did the firing, though.
It was later said that Thomas had been dining with friends and upon returning home had been
met by a gunman who unloaded five bullets in him.
Two hit him in the back, two in his left side and one went right through his eye.
It’s said his pockets had been emptied, prompting police to say the reason for the
murder was robbery.
Rumors spread around town.
It’s said he was quite the ladies’ man, and many speculated he had been killed by
one of those ladies’ husbands or lovers.
For months people believed this to be the case.
Some time later police were looking for a drug dealer and it’s said that Willie Francis
just happened to see the police.
He wasn’t dealing drugs, but it’s said when he saw two white police officers running
his way he just took off out of fright.
That was a mistake, as running made the police think he was guilty of something.
Later Francis was interviewed by cops at the police station.
They said he seemed frightened and stuttered a lot, but it turned out Francis had stuttered
his whole life.
The cops didn’t think they had captured the drug dealer they had been looking for,
but guess what they found on Francis?
They found Andrew Thomas’ wallet and identification card.
That’s what they said, anyway.
It’s said within three to five minutes the police got a full confession for the murder
of Thomas.
They also managed to get a confession for an unrelated assault and robbery in another
town.
The fact cops did this in a few minutes, and the fact the boy was said to be somewhat slow,
would compel people to ask if the interrogation and subsequent confessions were perhaps part
of a set-up.
Francis was questioned without a lawyer, without any advice, without any family member or friend
being present.
The confession read, “I Willie Francis now 16 years old I stole the gun from Mr. Ogise
at St. Martinville La. and kill Andrew Thomas November 9, 1944 or about the time at St.
Martinville La it was a secret about me and him.
I took a black purse with card 1280182 in it four dollars in it.”
He wrote a second confession the next day.
This one contained more details about how many shots had been fired and where the body
was found.
As for the trial, it’s said Francis’ lawyers were inept.
One writer says, “They never questioned the indictment, nor did they make a motion
for change of venue, despite the widespread publicity about the murder of a beloved white
member of a small community by a black youth.”
The 12 white jurors found him guilty, and he was to be executed.
Francis’ lawyers never challenged the verdict.
By the way, Francis has pleaded not guilty.
The jury never heard any argument pertaining to the possibility of a forced confession
or that evidence could have been planted.
The confession itself was good enough for him to be convicted.
Many people in the town thought that something smelled funny, as did many others all across
the U.S.
The local press wrote, “Throughout the trial the negro was uninterested and showed very
little emotion.’’
Francis wrote that he was concerned that he might act like a “cry-baby” on the day
of his execution, but was relieved to hear that the actual execution would only “tickle.”
On May 3rd, 1946, he had his head shaved and prepared to have 2,500 volts of electricity
flow through him.
On his cell wall it was discovered that he had written the words, “‘Of Course I Am
Not a Killer.’’
Police never did have a motive for the murder, nor any substantial evidence other than the
confession of a slow 16-year old boy.
He was taken to Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola to be put in the chair, nicknamed
“Gruesome Gertie.”
The lever was pulled, and this is how Francis later described the feeling.
“I couldn’t stop the jumping.
If that was tickling it was sure a funny kind.
I thought for a minute I was going to knock the chair over.
Then I was all right.
I thought I was dead.”
Other reports state that he shouted, “Take it off.
Take it off” as the executioners tried to give him a second round of shocks.
It’s said after the failed attempt he wasn’t even injured, but said he felt kind of dizzy.
Some people thought this was a miracle, and a righteous one as they didn’t believe he
was guilty nor had had a fair trial.
Louisiana’s Governor James Davis then said in six days they would send him to the chair
again.
That didn’t happen, and much of America got behind the young man.
He once wrote, “‘I felt just like a movie star, and didn’t have any idea I had so
many friends.”
He also later described how his execution felt, in something he called “The Chair”.
He wrote, “You feel like you got a mouth full of cold peanut butter, and you see little
blue and pink and green speckles, the kind that shines in a rooster’s tail.”
What ensued were many months of legal arguments.
Not only did some people believe he wasn’t even guilty, but lawyers now argued that to
subject a person to a second execution was “cruel and unusual punishment.”
Prosecution lawyers argued against that, stating the first attempt had not worked at all and
he had not been hurt.
But the evidence supporting this in hindsight seems pretty weak.
The court also heard that the botch was just an accident, and such accidents “happen
for which no man is to blame.”
That meant no one was at fault, and there should be another execution.
We might also note that later the state was petitioned, with lawyers saying this about
the botched execution, “The scene was a disgraceful and inhuman exhibition, that as
soon as the switch controlling the current was taken off, the drunken executioner cursed
Francis and told him he would be back to finish electrocuting him, and if the electricity
did not kill him he would kill him with a rock.”
The drunken men in charge that night were accused of being sadistic, not giving Francis
the full shock because they wanted to torture him.
He was returned to the chair on May 9, 1947, and this time he didn’t survive.
He was just 18-years old.
If anything positive came out of all this, that is the fact the justice system was exposed
for not supporting Francis in the first place.
This poor, black boy may or may not have killed his boss, but he certainly wasn’t protected
as he should have been by the American justice system.
Many Americans of all colors saw and criticized what had happened.
After hearing the strange and perhaps infuriating case of young Willie Francis, we’d like
to get your opinion.
Tell us in the comments.
Also, be sure to check out our other show Man So Violent Even Other Prisoners Fear Him.
Thanks for watching, and as always, don’t forget to like, share and subscribe.
See you next time.