William Kemmler

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William Kemmler (May 9, 1860 – August 6, 1890) of Buffalo, New York was the first person to be executed via electric chair. He had murdered Tillie Ziegler, his common-law wife, with a hatchet on March 29, 1889, and was sentenced to be executed on August 6, 1890, at 7:00 AM. His lawyers appealed, arguing that electrocution was cruel and unusual punishment; George Westinghouse, one of the backers of alternating current as the standard for the distribution of mains power, supported his appeal. However, the appeal failed, partly due to the support of Thomas Edison for the state's position (Edison was a backer of direct current power supplies, and it is speculated he wanted to use the publicity surrounding the electric chair to convince people that AC was dangerous). See War of Currents.

The practical details of the Chair were finalised by the first State Electrician, Edwin Davis.

At August 6 of the year following the murder, Kemmler was awakened at 5:00 AM. He dressed quickly and put on a suit, necktie and white shirt. After breakfast and some prayer, the hair on the top of his head was shaved off; this caused Kemmler to bleed. At 6:38 AM, Kemmler entered the execution room and was presented to the seventeen witnesses by the warden. Kemmler looked at the chair and replied: "Gentlemen, I wish you luck. I'm sure I'll get a good place, and I'm ready." His tie had gotten loose a bit; he corrected it and then sat down in the chair. The generator was started, and the guards prepared to seat Kemmler in the chair. The aim was to shock him with a mere 1,000 volts, making his heart to stop within seconds. A successful try had been made a day earlier on a horse lying on the floor, and eight years later - eventually - the man behind the electric chair himself, Thomas Alva Edison, would electrocute the elephant Topsy (see link below).

Kemmler was quite cool at his execution, not screaming nor crying, and he was calm and polite. He easily sat down himself but was ordered up by the warden since they had to cut up a hole in the back of his suit to put on the second lead of electricity. This was done, and then Kemmler sat down again. He was strapped at the chair, his face covered and the metal hat put on his bare head, saying "Take it easy and do it properly, I'm in no hurry." The generator was prepared, loaded with the planned 1,000 volts. The warden replied "Goodbye William" and ordered the electricity put in.

The witnesses were excited, and hearing a click they saw every muscle in Kemmler's body strapping, his right thumb entering the hand and causing some blood to fall out. After 17 seconds, the power was cut because doctor had declared Kemmler dead. A scientist witnessing the execution replied:
"This is the result of ten years of science - from now on, we're entering a more civilized world." However, another witness screamed and fainted as she saw Kemmler's breast was breathing, marking he was alive. Dr Spitzka immediately ordered the generator to be charged again, and to make a more powerful shock. It took at least six minutes to load up, and under the time the badly burnt Kemmler could be heard moaning. Some witness fainted, and the room begin to stink as 2,000 volts were prepared. The second attempt lasted for over a minute and the scene was described by many present as gruesome, with a smell of burning flesh and smoke rising from Kemmler's head. Westinghouse later commented: "They would have done better using an axe." A reporter who witnessed it also said it was "an awful spectacle, far worse than hanging."

Christopher Davis's novel "A Peep into the Twentieth Century" (Harper & Row, 1971) presents a fictionalized account of the last weeks of Kemmler's life and the surrounding War of Currents.

[edit] References

• Moran, Richard (2002). Executioner's current: Thomas Edison,Geor Westinghouse, and the invention of the electric chair. New York: Random House.
• {{cite news | first=Richard | last=Babyak | pages=5 | title=Current

[edit] Weblinks

Newspaper coverage of Kemmler's execution [1] or [2] of the electrocution of Topsy.