 |
| Sally Burr's gravestone. |
|
Jefferson City resident is hanged for killing wife
The public gallows was located near the prison, adjoining a hay field. In 1841, Jefferson
City resident D. B. Burr, a prison blacksmith who had killed his wife, Sally Burr, with ground
glass, was hanged there. Gordon allowed the prisoners to join a large number of townspeople
to watch the execution. The condemned man made a short speech in which he confessed, repented,
and expressed his hope of forgiveness. He then admonished the audience to learn from his example
and calmly met his death. Sally, Burr's second wife, was buried in the Old City Cemetery.
He was buried alongside her, her grave marked and his, unmarked. No record could be found
to disclose what happened to Burr's first wife.
|
Four convicts make an attempt at freedom
During April of 1904, four convicts made a desperate attempt at
freedom. Somehow, they had managed to obtain three revolvers and a
quantity of dynamite, with which to blow the hinges off doors that
stood in their way.
|
 |
| Harry Vaughan, Edward Raymond, and
George Ryan. |
|
Someone had warned the officers that an escape was planned, and
at the appointed time, the four men were noticed out of their cells and
moving furtively toward the door. Guards immediately surrounded them.
Convinced their effort was now futile, the four gave up at once. The
existence of the guns and dynamite worried the guards, who wondered how
such items could have ended up inside the walls. The inmates themselves
told differing stories: one claimed it had been dropped down inside the
walls to them; another that they had received it through the mail.
Prison officials feared that the real culprit was someone who worked at
the prison, who had carried the guns and explosives in to them.
 |
| Deputy Warden R.E. See. |
|
The very next year a similar escape attempt was made, this one
nearly successful. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon of November 24, 1905,
four prisoners met at the stockade gate. George Ryan handed out Colt
.44 revolvers and a large supply of ammunition to fellow convicts
Harry Vaughan, Edward Raymond, and Hiram Blake. The four then entered
the office of Deputy Warden R. E. See, and he was ordered to put his
hands in the air. Instead, he went for his gun and one of the men shot
him in the shoulder. After See slumped to the floor, he and another
person in the office were grabbed and used as shields for the men as
they raced across the yard toward a large iron gate that led outside
the prison.
|
Guard John Clay was gatekeeper the day the four desperadoes
hollered at him to hold up his hands. While in this vulnerable posture,
one of the four shot him in the head, killing him. Another guard,
Ephriam Allison, noticed the commotion through a grated door and yelled,
"What's going on there?" He was shot twice and also fell dead.
The escapees then placed a charge of nitroglycerin on their last
remaining hurdle to freedom, a large gate at the end of the driveway. It
blew the lock completely off the gate and made a jagged hole large
enough for the men to dive through. The four ran down along the railroad
tracks toward the depot, shooting back at the pursuing guards. One of
the fleeing prisoners, Hiram Blake, was shot and killed by police
officer John Bruner.
|
The remaining three jumped in a wagon belonging to Houck
McHenry and held a gun to the driver, Arthur Lane. Using him as a
shield, they grabbed the reins and whipped the horses to a full
gallop. They raced down Madison Street south to Dunklin; then turned
west on Dunklin. In front of the Capital City Brewery, Ryan fainted
from sheer fright and fell off the wagon. Vaughan and Raymond kept
going, until a young boy, Emery Green, bravely ran into the street and
grabbed the bridle of one of the horses, stopping the wagon. Vaughan
leapt from the wagon and tried to shoot the boy, but his gun wouldn't
fire. Policeman George Staihr, gun drawn, apprehended the escapees.
|
 |
| The murderous trio being prepared
for execution. |
|
The three convicts were returned to the penitentiary and placed
in solitary confinement. George Ryan confessed to the escape plot and
told prison officials that the guns, ammunition and explosives had been
brought to them by an ex-convict, H. E. Spencer.
 |
| Newspaper account of the escape,
murder, trial and execution. |
|
After a series of trials and appeals, the Missouri Supreme
Court on May 16, 1907, finally found the three guilty of murder in the
first degree and sentenced them to hang. Ryan was upset by the
verdict, as he felt he should have been treated more leniently for
confessing the details of the escape plot. Dressed in suits, the men
were hanged, side-by-side, on June 27, 1907. The hanging took place in
the Cole County jail yard on Monroe Street in front of a huge crowd.
The Cole County Democrat (June 27, 1907) ran this headline: "Jerked To
Eternity." The article claimed that thousands of spectators stood on
hilltops and roofs around the jail and noted, with some consternation,
that women, as well as men and children, had gathered to watch the
execution. "It certainly seems a gala day for the morbid ..." it
reported, then described in macabre detail the death struggles of the
three men.
|
 |
| A close-up view of prison officials preparing Harry Vaughan for hanging. |
|
 |
| Left to right: Edward Raymond, Harry
Vaughan, and George Ryan, hooded, awaiting death. Father Henry A.
Geisert, MSP's Catholic chaplain appears in line after Ryan. |
|
After the drop, it reported,"Vaughan's neck was broken by the
fall, and he did not quiver. Ryan gave evidence of suffocation while
Raymond strangled to death. Although Raymond struggled the most he was
the first to be pronounced dead."
As for the men murdered in the trio's escape attempt, Governor
Joseph Folk spoke at Officer Clay's funeral as he was buried in the
Woodland Cemetery on McCarty Street in Jefferson City. Officer
Allison, not from Jefferson City, was buried in his hometown. The
legislature approved paying $2,500 each to the widows of the slain
guards.
|
Changing the Complexion of Executions
In September, 1937, Governor Lloyd Crow Stark signed a bill calling for
execution by lethal gas. No longer would the local sheriff be responsible
for carrying out the death penalty for those convicted in his county. The
days of public hangings in Missouri were finally coming to an end.
|
 |
| The gas chamber, built in 1938. |
|
 |
| The gas chamber housed inside the small rock building. |
|
Senator Paul C. Jones of Kennett had introduced a bill which, originally,
would have made the electric chair the means of execution in Missouri. Jones
was disgusted by the holiday atmosphere that had surrounded the public hangings,
attended by hundreds of people, including small children. Others agreed, saying
the public spectacle of hangings was a disgrace. Still, many members of the
legislature were strongly opposed to the bill, arguing that more death sentences
would result. Nevertheless, Missouri was, on the whole, a state that supported
the death penalty for serious crimes. The bill was changed from electric chair
to lethal gas and was approved.
Prisoners convicted of capital offenses would now be executed at the prison in
a gas chamber constructed especially for that purpose. A small rock building was
built at a cost of $3,570, using inmate labor. It consisted of two cells, the
airtight gas chamber with two perforated steel chairs, and a small viewing
area.
|
|
One of the cells would house the condemned inmate in his final hours before the
execution. The other contained clay crocks in which the sulfuric acid was mixed.
As the time for the execution drew near, the crocks of sulfuric acid would be
placed beneath the chairs. The condemned would be brought into the chamber and
strapped to the chair with leather restraints. Everyone but the inmate would leave
the chamber and the airtight door would be sealed and locked. When the warden
pulled the red lever located right outside the chamber door, cyanide pellets
would drop into the crocks, releasing the deadly vapor. After the inmate was
pronounced dead, the gas would be vented through a pipe in the chamber's roof.
The first inmates to die in Missouri's gas chamber were John Brown and William
Wright. Brown had been convicted of fatally shooting William Cavanaugh, a
motorcycle patrolman, while Wright murdered a druggist, Dr. J. T. Campbell.
|
 |
| Holding cell where the condemned spent final hours
before execution. |
|
 |
| William Wright and John Brown. |
|
First three to be executed in the new gas chamber
The first three to be executed in the new gas chamber were initially to be
hanged at the Jackson County Jail in Kansas City. The courts determined that
lethal gas was more humane, sealing the fate of John Brown, William Wright and
Raymond Boyer.
Brown and Wright were executed on March 4, 1938. Brown shot and killed
William Cavanaugh, a motorcycle patrolman. He stated:
"I prefer the gas chamber to hanging as it will be quicker."
|
Wright killed Dr. J.T. Campbell, a black druggist. He had this to say about the gas chamber,
"It isn't for me to choose."
|
During the early morning hours of Friday, March 4, 1938, prison officials
prepared for the double execution. The two condemned killers were led into
the gas chamber, blindfolded, and strapped in the chairs. Neither showed
much emotion at 6:18 a.m. when Warden J. M. Sanders read the death warrant
to them.
Wright sat silently and drummed his fingers on the arm of the chair. Brown's
lips moved silently in prayer. At 6.21 a.m., Warden Sanders tripped the lever
that released the cyanide pellets into the jars of sulfuric acid. Both men held
their breath for as long as they could, then gasped as they inhaled the deadly
fumes. By 6:26 a.m., Dr. Rambo, the penitentiary physician, pronounced both
dead.
Raymond Boyer, the third man executed, mistakenly stated:
"At least I'll be the first to test the chamber."
Boyer had killed W. Dale Sanford of Kansas City.
|
 |
| A view of the two chairs from the
witness viewing mirror suspended above the condemned. |
|
 |
| Raymond Boyer and Adam Richetti. |
|
Adam Richetti was convicted of the 1933 Union Station Massacre with Pretty
Boy Floyd in Kansas City. Four police officers and one inmate were killed.
On October 7, 1938, as he was strapped into the seat, he muttered,
"What have I done to deserve this?"
There were forty witnesses to his execution, the sixth
in the new gas chamber. In recent years, some authors have questioned his
involvement in the massacre.
|
Heady and Hall are executed side by side
The execution of Bonnie Heady and Carl Hall was scheduled for one minute after
midnight, December 18, 1953. Thirty minutes before, the two were driven the quarter of
a mile to the gas chamber in a prison automobile.
|
 |
| Carl Austin Hall and Bonnie Heady. |
|
 |
| Bonnie Heady being walked to the gas chamber. |
|
Jefferson City was packed with members of the national media. People all over
the country were glued to their radios to hear news of the execution. Ward
Colwell, a reporter who witnessed the execution, noticed a spot of lipstick
on Carl Austin Hall's cheek moments before he entered the execution chamber.
At first, he did not mention it to the other reporters. Later, when it became
public, prison officials acknowledged that Heady and Hall had been together
for a few final minutes in the death house holding cell.
On the evening of the execution, a Christmas parade was being held in Jefferson
City. Reporter Jeri East was not able to enjoy the festivities. She spent that
evening near a telephone. She had learned that Missouri Highway Patrol Superintendent
Hugh Waggoner would give a signal by radio as soon as the execution was complete.
When she heard the signal, she called her office, and her pre-written story hit the
wires. After the execution, prison officials finally took the news media down to
the cells where Heady and Hall had spent the last weeks of their lives.
|
|
Bonnie Heady was buried in St. Joseph. She had asked that Hall be buried next to
her, but the people of St. Joseph would not allow that to happen. His body was still
at the Buescher Funeral Home in Jefferson City the day after the execution. The New
York office of United Press International asked Jeri East to remain at the funeral
home until his body was claimed. A Kansas City Star reporter waited with her.
Rumors abounded. Was it really Hall's body at the funeral home? The New York UPI
office called East and said they wanted her to see for herself that the body was
still at the funeral home.
|
 |
| Carl Austin Hall being escorted to the gas chamber. |
|
 |
| The hearse carrying Hall's body. |
|
East was queasy about the idea of viewing a dead body, so she convinced the
young Kansas City Star reporter to make the identification. She would get
permission for him to do it, and in return he would describe to her everything
he saw, down to the last detail. He and Vic Buescher went downstairs, and when
they returned, the reporter told East that Hall was, indeed, in the coffin and
was dressed in the same suit he had worn when he arrived at the penitentiary.
About nine that night, East was exhausted, having not slept for several days.
She told Vic Buescher she was going home to sleep and to call her if anyone
came to claim the body. As soon as she reached her home, Buescher called. Carl
Austin Hall's brother was on his way from Kansas with a hearse to retrieve the
body.
|
William Wright
|
Age: 33
3/4/1938
Murder
|
John Brown
|
Age: 34
3/4/1938
Murder
|
Raymond Boyer
|
Age: 33
3/5/1938
Murder
|
Raymond Batson
|
Age: 33
3/5/1938
Murder
|
Johnny Jones
|
Age: 35
7/14/1938
Rape
|
Adam Richetti
In Pretty Boy, Michael Wallis says of (Adam) Richetti,
"(He) grew up in a large family, one generation removed from
Italy. His parents had left the old country for the United States
in order to earn enough money to start a new life ... They settled
in Coal County near the town of Lehigh in the coal-mining district
of south-central Oklahoma ... Just to keep the pasta, beans, and
a little garlic in the cupboard, Adam's parents hawked bottles of
hearty choc beer, the miners' preferred beverage. They also picked
up odd bits of coal and sold them to other poor families for winter
fuel ... Richetti ventured forth as a professional criminal in his
late teens."
"The Kansas City Massacre involved the attempt by Charles Arthur
"Pretty Boy" Floyd, Vernon Miller and Adam Richetti to free their
friend, Frank Nash, a Federal prisoner. At the time, Nash was in
the custody of several law enforcement officers who were returning
him to the U.S. Penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas, from which he
had escaped on October 19, 1930."
"I stood on the spot of the Kansas City Massacre, which occurred
over 60 years ago. I carry a somewhat obscure connection to the
notorious crime because I am assigned FBI badge number 4920, the
same badge that was once carried by FBI Agent Frank Smith. Smith
had survived the barrage of bullets that killed four lawmen, a
prisoner, and wounded two others. The carnage happened at the hands
of "Pretty Boy" Floyd and two other hoodlums."
Byron King
|
Age: 28
1/4/1938
Murder
|
Granville Allen
|
Age: 28
10/28/1938
Murder
|
John Williamson
|
Age: 63
2/15/1939
Murder
|
Robert Kenyon
|
Age: 24
4/28/1939
Murder
|
Chester Jackson
|
Age: 31
9/20/1940
Murder
|
Robert West
|
Age: 25
9/20/1940
Murder
|
Wilburn Johnson
|
Age: 40
1/3/1941
Murder
|
Ernest Tyler
|
Age: 37
6/24/1942
Murder
|
Allen Lambus
|
Age: 73
6/16/1944
Murder
|
James Thomas
|
Age: 20
10/19/1944
Murder
|
Leo Lyles
|
Age: 22
5/25/1945
Murder
|
William E. Talbert
|
Age: 24
11/16/1945
Murder
|
Jesse Sanford
|
Age: 37
8/16/1946
Murder
|
Fred Ellis
|
Age: 23
8/16/1946
Murder
|
Van Lee Ramsey
The following "case history" was found in Van Lee Ramsey's
prison file in the State Archives. It was typed on Missouri
State Penitentiary letterhead. According to the document, Ben
B. Stewart was Acting Warden. While unsigned, it appeared to
have been written by Joseph T. Lamar, Bureau of
Identification.
Van Lee Ramsey
Scheduled for Execution on December 13, 1946. Van Lee Ramsey
a 36-year old (born February 25, 1910) Negro Foundry Worker. Born
at Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Reared at Harvey, Louisiana. 5 ft.
10 in. 155 lbs.
Attends the Baptist Church. Is Married and completed the 8th
grade in school. His wife Mrs. Alice Ramsey, 2926 Sheridan, St.
Louis, Mo.
Brother—Now in Army, Sam Ramsey, formerly resided at
1815a, Papin St., St. Louis, MO.
Sister—Mrs. Geneva Ramsey, Koch Hospital, St. Louis
County, MO.
Will be the 21st victim of the lethal gas chamber, being sentenced
on November 19, 1945 after a Jury trial finding the death verdict on
a First Degree Murder Charge in St. Louis City. On March 3, 1946, he
also was taken to St. Louis City where he plead guilty to a life
sentence on charges of Robbery 1st Degree, under the State Statutes
however, the death sentence takes precedence.
Served one term at Missouri State Penitentiary under No. 51217
being received on July 16, 1938 from St. Louis County to serve 5 yrs.
from July 7, 1938 on a Charge of Burglary & Larceny. He was discharged
under conditional commutation of sentence on March 31, 1941.
In 1942 he served a 8-month sentence at the Medical Center for
Federal Prisoners at Springfield, Missouri, for theft of government
property. He entered the Center April 7, 1942 was discharged on August
11, 1942.
In connection with the present death sentence, he was arrested by
the Metropolitan St. Louis Police Department on July 10, 1945, after
an intensive city-wide man-hunt that alerted the entire police department
after a prolonged series of attacks on women war-workers returning to
their homes early in the morning. He followed a Broadway street car with
the intent to molest a white war worker, and was almost successful but was
scared away at the time. However, a taxi-cab driver secured his license
number and it was flashed via radio and the car with Ramsey driving was
overtaken in another portion of St. Louis. At the time of his apprehension
he had a long butcher knife wedged behind the front seat of the car, which
was identified as belonging to him and used in his attacks on the women.
Robbery was the sole motive inasmuch as none were assaulted. In this connection,
the "finger" was placed on him by an "EX" from MSP (name unknown at the present
moment) who was the driver of the Black and White Cab.
Marshal Perkins
The following "case history" was found in Marshall Perkins' prison file
in the State Archives. It was typed on Missouri State Penitentiary letterhead.
According to the document, Ben B. Stewart was Acting Warden. While unsigned,
it appeared to have been written by Joseph T. Lamar, Bureau of
Identification.
Present Case History
Arrested by Police Department, Kansas City, Missouri on June 4, 1948, under
charge of investigation for statutory rape. On June 8, 1948, charged by the
Sheriff's Office, Jackson County, Kansas City, Missouri, with statutory rape
and habitual criminal act.
Convicted of raping a young white female, about 13-yrs of age, girl (name
not available) was returning home around 11 p.m. after seeing show at Vista
Theater, Kansas City, Missouri, with another female companion. At Eleventh
and Prospect, the two girls separated to go to their respective homes, and
victim turned east on Prospect, and was seized by negro (PERKINS) and dragged
to a garage. The girl companion heard her screams, and immediately ran to the
victim's father's home.
The victim's father entered the garage and accosted the negro and his
daughter but the negro escaped and was apprehended as above.
* * * *
Will be the 22nd victim in the lethal gas chamber, and the third of 22
death sentences to be convicted for rape. Will be the 18th negro to be
executed.
Other death sentences for rape: John Jones, Negro, Executed, 6-14-38,
New Madrid Co. Age—34 James Thomas, Negro, Executed, 10-19-44, St.
Louis Co. Age—20
Will be the first subject executed from Jackson County, since Ernest
Tyler, Negro, was executed on April 24, 1942, on a First Degree Murder
Charge.
Will be the third oldest man to be executed in the gas chamber:
Oldest—Allen Lambus, Age—72 when executed, 5-15-44.
Murder 1st 2nd—John Williams on, Age—82 when executed,
2-15-39, Murder 1st.
Incidentally, James Thomas, Age—20 when executed for Rape,
was the youngest man to be executed in the gas chamber.
Floyd Cochran
|
Age: 37
9/26/1947
Murder
|
Afton Scott
|
Age: 49
11/4/1949
Murder
|
George Bell
|
Age: 35
12/2/1949
Murder
|
Charles Tiedt
|
Age: 56
5/19/1950
Murder
|
Claude McGee
|
Age: 39
1/15/1951
Murder
|
Willie Porter
|
Age: 29
10/28/1952
Rape
|
Ulas Quilling
|
Age: 53
5/29/1953
Murder
|
Kenneth Boyd
|
Age: 23
7/10/1953
Murder
|
Carl Austin Hall
|
Age: 34
12/18/1953
Kidnapping
|
Bonnie B. Heady
|
Age: 41
12/18/1953
Kidnapping
|
Dock Booker
|
Age: 46
4/1/1955
Murder
|
Arthur R. Brown
|
Age: 31
2/24/1956
Kidnapping
|
Thomas Moore
|
Age: 42
9/13/1957
Murder
|
Sammy Aire Tucker
|
Age: 26
7/26/1963
Murder
|
Charles H. Odom
The following description is excerpted from an appeal
from the Circuit Court of Jasper County (Ray Watson was the
judge) to the Supreme Court of Missouri (en banc), April
Session, 1963.
On Sunday, July 23, 1961, shortly after four o'clock in
the afternoon, Lisa Schuh, a female child thirteen years of
age, a resident of Wichita, Kansas, who was visiting her
grandmother in Joplin, took her little puppy out for a walk
around the block where her grandmother lived. At that time
Vernon Stephens was inside a garage painting about a window
which faced on an alley in the rear of 731 Potter Street.
Another workman was on the roof of the garage. Stephens saw
the defendant, Charles Harvey Odom age 29, a resident of
Wellington, Kansas, driving a two-tone white over blue, 1956
Chevrolet automobile, Kansas License No. S/U1-0204, stop his
car in the alley opposite the window where Stephens was
working. Stephens was able to get a clear view of defendant's
head and face and first observed him talking to Lisa Schuh,
who had stopped by the car. Stephens could hear little of
the conversation, but he saw defendant get out of the car,
hold a gun on the child, force her into the car, grab the
little dog and throw him in and drive away in haste, holding
a gun on the child. Stephens ran out of the garage in time
to take the license number of the car, get its make and description
and to have these facts reported to the police. The workman on
the roof of the garage also saw the child walking through the
alley with defendant driving his car by her side. He also observed
the child huddled on the floor board of defendant's automobile as
it went down Eighth Street.
Shortly after the news was broadcast defendant's auto was seen
a short distance north and west of the city limits of Joplin, where
two girls had seen the car pass and were able to see the driver.
Defendant's automobile had also been observed parked in a narrow
roadway in this northwest area obstructing the passage of other
vehicles. The driver of another automobile has caused defendant to
back his car up for some distance to permit this other car to pass
defendant's car. Subsequently, defendant's car operated by defendant
was observed heading back into Joplin at a high speed. It was followed
into the city by a police officer in an unmarked car. This officer caused
defendant's car to be stopped and defendant to be arrested at an
intersection with Seventh Street, almost within the same area and
approximately within an hour from the time the child was picked up.
The arresting officer observed the handle of a pistol sticking
out from under the front seat of defendant's car and on the floor
of the car, in back of the driver's seat, the officer found the
child's bloody clothing and the shoes the child was wearing when
she left her grandmother's home. The officer also found a rock with
blood and hair on it and some of defendant's own clothing. When asked
where the child was, defendant denied any knowledge of her. Search was
then instituted in the area where defendant's car had been seen
northwest of the city. In a secluded and desolate area in heavy brush
the little dog was first located and then the unconscious and almost
naked child was discovered. She was taken to a hospital where she
remained unconscious for approximately six weeks. Medical examination
revealed that she had had sexual intercourse and her private parts
severely injured and, in addition, she had been struck on the head and
her skull fractured in several places and brain tissues exposed. Witnesses
identified defendant as the driver of the car when it was parked
northwest of the city and also as it was leaving the city and returning
to it.
Statements signed by the defendant on July 26, 1961, were admitted in
evidence. They showed that defendant admitted putting a pistol in the window
of the car with the barrel pointing out the window towards the little girl;
that the girl got into the car; that after a lapse of time, they arrived at
a secluded area where he proceeded to have sexual intercourse with the child;
that he had probably told her to remove her clothes; that, after he had
completed having intercourse with her, he was very frightened to realize what
he had done; that, when he had left Springfield that afternoon he had on
brown slacks, brown slippers, brown socks, a white T-shirt and a gold
sweater, but when he was arrested he had on jeans, brown slippers, brown
socks, a white T-shirt and a gold sweater; that he had used the rock found
in his car to beat the child on the head; that he must have put the girl's
clothes in the car; that he intended to get rid of the clothes later; that,
when a certain car passed him on the road and he saw a woman in the car,
he tried to think of some way to get rid of the child; that he remembered
picking up a rock and hitting her on the head and seeing her sort of crumple
on the ground; and that, thereafter, he hurriedly picked up her clothes, the
rock and other articles, put them in the car and left the scene. Defendant did
not testify at the trial.
Ronald Lee Wolfe
|
Age: 34
5/8/1964
Rape
|
Lloyd L. Anderson
The following was excerpted from the Commitment Report
found in Lloyd Leo Anderson's file at the Missouri State
Archives.
CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CRIME AND
OF PRISONER'S COMMITMENT
On May 18, 1961, this defendant, along with two others,
to-wit: Charles Miller Moore and Clewiston Jones, entered the
Speckart Drug Store in the City of St. Louis for the purpose of
committing an armed robbery. The defendant and Clewiston Jones
were armed with sawed off shotguns, and this defendant also had
with him a .32 calibre [sic] revolver.
The third party, Charles Miller Moore, the co-defendant, was
armed with a .38 calibre [sic] revolver. During the course of the
holdup, the deceased, Thomas Grupe, age 15, returned into the drug
store from a delivery, at which time this defendant and Clewiston
Jones took the victims, Mr. Speckart and the deceased, Thomas Grupe,
to the basement, at which time they beat both Speckart and Grupe
and fired a shot at Speckart and fired a shot at Grupe. Grupe died
as a result to the fired shot at him as he lay on the floor of the
drug store basement. This shot was fired from the gun held by this
defendant. A shot fired by Clewiston Jones at Speckart caused a flesh
wound only, and Speckart lived to testify.
This defendant, along with Clewiston Jones, was apprehended May
29, 1961, at which time they exchanged shots with police officers while
on the premises of a liquor store. Clewiston Jones was fatally wounded
by the officers at this time, and this defendant was arrested at which
time he was brought to the Police Headquarters and gave a full statement
of the occurrence in the Speckart Drug Store and the killing of the
Grupe boy, as outlined above, and signed a statement after it was
typed. He was identified by the owner of the drug store, Mr. Speckart,
and the murder weapon was recovered.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Usual occupation, education, family background, if known, and
recommendations as to training and parole:
Defendant attended classes first at
O'Fallon Technical High School and then at Soldan High School. He quit school
before graduation. Worked for an interior decorator for sometime but quit
because the employer was slow in paying. Earned $60 a week as a decorator.
Quit for the reason, "Sometimes I don't feel like working so I didn't."
In 1958, Anderson was sentenced to Industrial Training School for Boys
and released after serving 14 months.
RECOMMENDATION: That the sentence
be carried out and the defendant be put to death, on March 9, 1962.
Date: February 2, 1962
Daniel P. Reardon, Jr.
Circuit Attorney
George Mercer
|
Age: Unknown
1/6/1989
Murder
|
