There’s supposed to be no escape, no alternate ending when the switch is flipped; but sometimes
life throws a curveball and spares even the most heinous of people.
Death row is intended to be a criminal’s final moments, but there have been those that
have escaped their planned death as if to spit in the face of the system that put them
there.
Sometimes, it’s a temporary escape as the system always gets its way, but these death
row survivors are a fascinating breed that have done the impossible.
Or maybe their devious acts are just the makings our own twisted imaginations.
It’s time to put yourself to the test and see if you can decide between fact.. or fiction.
The line that divides the factual from the unreal has long since blurred, the tales we
once thought fantastical now implanted as truth.
To decipher verity from the imagined, you must break from the ordinary and consider
a universe where the outlandish prevails.
Can you expand your mind to see beyond our perceived reality?
Can you decide what's fact or fiction?
Our first story is that of a literal “man of steel.”
He may not be faster than a speeding bullet, but he’s apparently stronger than one.
After being captured by Union soldiers during the Civil War, Tim Daley found himself staring
down multiple rifles – something that, for many, would have been a guaranteed death sentence.
Story # 1: The Firing Squad The scar that makes up the bulk of Tim Daley’s
face was a shocking one, but maybe no more shocking than the events that led to its formation.
At the height of the Civil War, Daley had found himself separated from his fellow soldiers,
forced to flee from the persistence of the Union.
He didn’t make it far before being picked up by the enemy – but that’s not where
his unfortunate story ends.
Not long after his capture, Daley received the word he had expected to: that there would
be no alternate options for him.
Without convening and deciding a fair and just sentence, the young soldier was immediately
sentenced to death.
An enemy to the Confederate’s cause, there was no place for him in the world they had
hoped to create.
With no more than enough food to keep him alive until his execution, Daley faced a definite
end brought on by his dedication to a cause he would never live to see fulfilled.
When his time came on the 18th day of the 3rd month of the year 1863, the Union soldier
wasn’t ready to die, but there would be no escape from the firing squad that stood
in front of him.
He stared down the barrels of each rifle, wondering which would wind up firing first
just to be the man that shot down the Union prisoner.
The process was slow, certainly slower than it needed to be, but eventually, the order
to fire came.
Daley felt the first two bullets hit him and pierce through the flesh of his chest.
Another struck him in the shoulder before any semblance of pain was masked by the fear
of his imminent death.
He heard nine gunshots and could feel his blood oozing from each of the nine successful
hits.
He squirmed against his restraints and struggled to keep his head up, but he could hear the
footsteps loud and clear as they approached.
One final gun was fired, this one much closer than the others, and he felt the impact strike
the right side of his face.
Daley could feel life slipping from him, but his mind refused to give in.
Even as the world around him turned black, he was still alive.
The last thing he could feel was his body being lifted, dragged, and eventually tossed
on an unknown pile.
Hours later and still bleeding, his face mangled from that final shot, Daley regained consciousness.
From the pile of bodies he was thrown onto, he struggled against weakness, blood loss
and the persistence of death and used every bit of strength he had to crawl away.
When Daley’s bloody figure happened upon the church several blocks away, he was lucky
enough to have been spotted by a generous church member.
Daley’s wounds were tended to and he eventually recovered from the impossible, and while he
never returned to the fight, he did eventually see that world he had been fighting for.
Of course, there have been tails of people being shot multiple times and living - but
to travel such a far distance and in a time with less-than kosher medical practices?
What do you think?
Was this a tale of our imaginations or an event rooted deep in history?
Leave a comment with your thoughts and be sure to vote using the onscreen poll.
We’ll get to the reveal in a moment, but we still have two more strange stories to
tell of people that were able to survive their death penalty.
The next one follows Robert Grossman, a mid-19th-century killer that found himself on the wrong end
of the law… and a vengeful father.
Story # 2: The Twofer It wasn’t uncommon for small towns back
then to hang their criminals publicly.
In fact, some even made a show of it.
But when it came to Robert Grossman, the alleged murderer of Tiffany Jacobs, the rural town
of Owensboro wasn’t there for the show.
They were there to make sure that sick S.o.B.
didn’t somehow escape his sentencing.
Within the crowd was Tiffany’s father, Isaac.
He was known throughout the midwestern town as a gentle man, someone that would give someone
the shirt off his back if it benefited them any.
But any sign of the kindness he once had vanished with the death of his girl.
Now, as he stared down Grossman, watching as the executioner tightened the noose around
his neck, his eyes burned with anger.
There was no ceremony to Grossman’s execution.
With few words said about him, he was dropped and the rope pulled tightly.
Grossman instinctively kicked, as if to find a solid surface, futilely pulling the rope
from his neck.
Even to those watching, his death seemed to take longer than expected.
As Grossman’s body continued to move and his throat gargled, Isaac stepped out from
the crowd, lifted a pistol he had stowed, and fired a round into the killer’s chest.
The chaos that followed ended with Grossman’s still body lying bloodied and on the ground
and Isaac carted off for endangering those around him.
Though he left under the assumption that Grossman had died, as did those that cut him down and
much of the crowd that gathered to watch, he still impossibly drew breath.
It wasn’t something Owensboro had ever experienced, but Grossman’s gunshot wound was tended
to and he was eventually nursed back to health.
Whether an attempt was to be made on his life again became a narrative throughout the small
town, with much of it leaning heavily towards “yes.”
In that time it was taking to decide, the killer’s heart still beat, and though Isaac
had been locked up and left tormented at the thought of his daughter’s killer still alive,
Tiffany’s father had his own supporters.
It was a quiet night in the small town when half-a-dozen people made their way to the
local jail where Grossman remained.
The group of people, a blend of Tiffany’s extended family and concerned friends of the
family, took the jail as theirs that night for one purpose: to free Isaac and allow him
the chance for revenge once again.
While they expected much resistance from the local law, the officers watching over the
cells that evening were keen on delivering Isaac’s much-needed vengeance, which, with
one bullet to the killer’s temple, he fulfilled.
That’s some luck Grossman seemed to have, but did it happen?
That is, did a man like Grossman survive the gallows and a gunshot only to be murdered
in a communal act of revenge later on?
Leave your thoughts in the comments and vote using the on-screen poll before we move onto
our final story.
This one may have you pondering the argument of the inhuman nature of the death penalty.
Does a man guilty of murder deserve to suffer?
Keep that question in the back of your mind as we look into the case of Darren Garner,
convicted murderer and death row inmate.
Story # 3: The Repeat Customer There was no denying that Garner had done
it.
At only 16-years-old, he had committed a heinous crime and murdered a local drugstore owner,
Francis Williams, in New Orleans.
For months after the crime, however, Garner lived a free life as the investigation pointed
police in every direction but his.
That is until he was detained for a lesser and unrelated crime.
As police started to search his personal belongings, they found Williams’ wallet.
It didn’t take long or even much prodding from the officers for Garner to confess.
After the brief interrogation, he confessed his guilt in writing and started to dish out
details on the murder.
During his trial, though, his tune changed and he pled “not guilty.”
The jury wasn’t convinced, especially when his court-appointed attorney called no witnesses
and let the prosecution tie him to the murder.
By the time the trial had ended, Garner had been convicted of murder and sentenced to
death.
In May of 1946, he was scheduled to be executed via the electric chair.
Prepared as any other death row inmate would be just prior to execution, Garner’s death
was intended to be quick.
But as the current started coursing through his body, witnesses to the execution claimed
they heard him crying for reprieve, even exclaiming “I’m not dying!”
Sure enough, he wasn’t dying.
According to the inspection done to the portable electric chair afterward, it hadn’t been
properly set up.
An intoxicated prison guard and prison inmate were responsible for the slip-up and, as many
people feared, for allowing a killer to walk.
Garner didn’t have it that easy, however.
Despite the help of a lawyer, who touted the execution as cruel and unusual punishment,
Garner’s appeals went unapproved.
Within a year, almost exactly to the day, he returned to the chair for a successful
execution.
Could prison policies be so loose as to allow a prison guard to be intoxicated and to allow
an inmate help with the execution?
Shouldn’t the botched execution have led to a change in Garner’s sentence to life
in prison?
We'd like to know what you think - so make your way to the comment section and vote with
the on-screen prompt.
Now.. let's find out if you were able to determine the difference between fact.. and fiction!
Are you ready to find out if you can decipher between fact or fiction?
Let’s look back at tonight's three stories and find out which were born from reality
and which were fabrications of the imagination.
Let’s go back to the beginning, to the story of Tim Daley, the Union Civil War Soldier
that survived the firing squad.
Clearly, that was a story I cooked up all my own, right?
Well, not entirely.
Change out Tim Daley for Wenseslao Moguel and the American Civil War for the Mexican
Revolution and you have yourself a true story.
Wenseslao is recognizable due to the scar left by the final, close-range bullet.
In 1937, Moguel went on the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not radio show to tell his story.
So, if that story is true, what does that say about our next one about the vengeful
father and the near-impervious murderer?
Did Robert Grossman survive the gallows and a gunshot wound?
No, no he didn’t.
The story was that of our own imaginations.
That leaves us with story number three, that of murderous Darren Garner.
Do you think he suffered a botched execution only to be faced with the chair again?
For that answer, I point you to Supreme Course case Francis v. Resweber.
The man was Willie Francis and, yes, he did survive his first execution due to a poorly
setup chair thanks to an intoxicated guard.
Francis attempted to appeal his sentence after the mishap, but one year and six days later,
he was back on the chair again.
This time, he wouldn’t survive.
How well did you do in tonight's video?
Did you look past the deception of our world and define the oft-blurred line that struggles
to separate lies from the truth?
Let us all know in the comment section below and should you find the urge to test your
perceptions again, be sure to subscribe and join us next time when we ask you to decide
what's fact... or fiction.