Dead End

But it was still so low-tech.

By 1886, a New York commission sat down and considered 34 different means of doing the deed. There were three desirable criteria, which have been the hallmarks of executions in America ever since: (a) speed, (b) absence of pain and (c) lack of blood.

Their answer then, much as it would be 100 years later, would be to turn to the science of the day. Electricity was the latest thing. It had never been used to intentionally kill anyone before, and it wasn't even known how it caused death (ventricular fibrillation, it would turn out).

But new science? Technology?

Brilliant!

Edison was involved in the design. The big decision was whether to use direct or alternating current.

William Kemmler was the first killer strapped in, electrodes attached to the base of his spine, to a metal cap strapped onto his head. Press accounts say he told the prison authorities to take their time and do it right.

Boy, did they!

Capillaries in his face burst. Blood oozed onto his face. Burnt flesh. Singed hair. The 25 spectators were nauseated. He was dead, all right, but it wasn't quite what people pictured.

But you can't stop Americans from improving on things. The kinks were worked out. The chair remains in use today, though rarely, and not without the occasional mishap.

There were other developments, too, some rehashed, some new.

Firing squad?