James Alderman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
James Horace Alderman (in some sources Aldermon) (died August 17, 1929) was a alcohol smuggler during the prohibition era, called the King of the Rum Runners. He was executed by the for killing on a high seas of U.S. Coastguardsmen Sidney Sanderlin and Victor A. Lamby and a Secret Service Robert K. Webster agent off southeast Florida, near Fort Lauderdale.
Crime took place August 7, 1927. He was tried by under Sections 272, 273, 275 of the U. S. Criminal Code. In January, 1928 he was sentenced to death by U. S. District Judge Henry D. Clayton. President Herbert Hoover declined clemency.
His hanging was initially schedulded to be carried out in Broward County jail, but the County Commissioners declined, insisted a U. S. hanging should occur on U. S. property (from 1924 all executions by the state of Florida were carried out by electric chair). Finally Alderman was executed on newly erected gallows in a metal hangar of the U. S. Coast Guard station near Fort Lauderdale. Media witnesses were barred from watching execution.
In contrast to Aldrman, next and, As of 2008, last federal inmate put to death in Florida, David Joseph Watson, was executed in state-owned Raiford Prison by the means of electrocution].
