Old Smokey

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Old Smokey is a name given to the state prison electric chair in New Jersey, which is currently in the New Jersey State Police Museum as a collectible. In the electric chair sits an effigy of Bruno Hauptmann, the man found guilty of abducting and killing Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr. in 1932, the 20-month old son of famous aviator Charles Lindbergh (see Lindbergh kidnapping).

Joe Baranyi is the man who recovered the electric chair. When souvenir collectors saw it, they tried stripping the chair from the leather leg straps; seeing this, Joe got a hold of it.

[edit] Executions

According to Baranyi, the chair was used in the execution of 159 men from 1907 to 1963., one of which tried to escape and was cut in half by a machine gun. Executions were ordinarily on Mondays at 10 AM, so the death clock was set to 9:55 PM. Women weren't executed because "they didn't want to shave their heads or their gushies."

A box of salt was set near the chair, and Joe explained "This salt isn't for their last meal, it's to salt a person down before you juice them. If they're sweating with B.O., they don't make as good a connection." There is also a sponge for extra-conductive padding under the skull cap. The caps used for the executions are displayed.

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