![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/5a25c40c-fcb2-465e-a70f-52dab04b974e.jpg\")
<\/a>\nSteady Geyser circa 1958<\/em><\/p>\n
Regardless of which version happened, forty percent of Gibson’s body was scalded and that was enough to cause his death on July 25, after he lay in agony for a week at the Livingston hospital. The newspapers also reported that overconfidence might have played a part in Gibson’s death, as he had been in the park a year earlier and “no doubt believed himself to be familiar with the section being visited.”<\/p>\n
Culled from:\u00a0Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park<\/a>\u00a0 (Oooh – there’s a second edition out!!!<\/em>)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The book\u00a0Deadly Intent, Crime and Punishment: Photographs from the Burns Archives<\/em>, like most of the excellent Burns Archive books,\u00a0is usually good about documenting its photos, so I found it surprising that this image has only the following caption:<\/p>\n I did an image search to see if I could find more of the story and found an\u00a0excellent article by Robert Walsh\u00a0about this execution.\u00a0 It turns out this was the first execution performed after Mississippi changed from hanging to electricity as a primary execution method. Instead of building a “death house” for executions like “normal” states do, Mississippi elected to create a portable electric chair: “The chair would be taken from county to county in a large silver truck also carrying a generator, switchboard, cables, and all the standard equipment for performing electrocutions that any other prison might use.”<\/p>\n And the executioner?\u00a0 “The new \u2018State Executioner\u2019 was Jimmy Thompson, an ex-convict, ex-merchant sailor, frequent drunkard, carnival showman, stage hypnotist, and ex-Marine only recently pardoned in 1939 after serving time at Parchman for armed robbery. He also had a violent past. During the 1920\u2019s Thompson had shot a neighbor for insulting his mother, escaping prosecution only via an unwritten law of Southern life that said a man was allowed to shoot another man to defend a woman\u2019s body or personal reputation. Needless to say, this law only extended to white men and certainly didn\u2019t extend to black men shooting white men on similar grounds.”<\/p>\n And Thompson acted like a circus master with his “toy”:<\/p>\n “By September, 1940 the equipment was ready for its public unveiling in the state capital at Jackson. Thompson arrived, set up his grim equipment, fired up the generator and worked the controls, cycling the voltage up and down to the deafening sound of the generator and unnerving whine as the current wound up and down.\u00a0 According to an article in Life magazine dated October 7, 1940:<\/p>\n \u2018Crowds saw a big silver truck, a portable generator and a sturdy chair complete with helmet straps and electrodes. Beside it stood Mississippi\u2019s new executioner, Jimmy Thompson, ex-sailor, marine, carnival man and high tension expert. No less proud of his chair than of the black cat, snakes and strawberries tattooed on his velvety skin, he explained that he and his volts would travel from county to county as business required\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n “Other press reports were far less favourable. The Memphis Commercial Appeal bitterly criticized the exhibition as barbaric and tasteless, stating: \u2018The only thing lacking at Thursday\u2019s formal and public exhibition of the State\u2019s new electric chair was a victim.\u2019 At $100 per execution plus expenses, Thompson was as keen to start work as the state was to demonstrate its new concept. It wasn\u2019t long before both would be satisfied.”<\/p>\n Which brings us to this photo: the first victim of the chair.<\/p>\n “Like most of Mississippi\u2019s condemned, Willie Mae Bragg was black. He\u2019d been convicted of murdering his ex-wife in Lucedale. With the state keen to demonstrate its new method and Bragg inspiring no sympathy in appellate judges, it was no great surprise that he was first in line. His date of execution was October 11, 1940. Bragg fully expected to die, but didn\u2019t know he was about to make state and penal history. He would be the first convict to die in a portable electric chair.”<\/p>\n If you’re like me, you’re probably thinking that this execution was botched and Willie Mae died a prolonged, horrible death, right?\u00a0 But surprisingly, the execution went off as well as can be expected.\u00a0 And here we have the summary of what is happening in the photograph above:<\/p>\n “‘The picture was made as the first flash of electricity surged through his body. Note Bragg\u2019s hands gripping the chair and his neck bulging in death\u2019s throes.\u2019 Thompson, always ready to supply a grim, attention-grabbing comment, stated that Bragg had died: \u2018With tears in his eyes for the efficient care I took to give him a good, clean burning.\u2019”<\/p>\n Er, okay.\u00a0 Whatever you say, Thompson.<\/p>\n Additional photos:Crime & Punishment Photo Du Jour!<\/h3>\n
<\/a>
\nMan in an Electric Chair
\ncirca 1940<\/strong><\/em>
\nReady to be executed, this man’s head has been totally immobilized by leather straps. One electrode is wrapped around his bare right foot.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n<\/a>
\nPrepping Willie Mae Bragg<\/em><\/p>\n