This week in 1989
“I hope and pray that all the new and reopened wounds will be healed quickly after my passing. My death is the Lord’s will and I am now with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in Heaven.”
— Aubrey Adams JR., convicted of murder, electric chair, Florida.
Executed May 4, 1989
Adams, a prison guard at the time of his arrest, was sentenced to death for smothering eight-year-old Trisa Gail Thornley. He had made an obscene phone call to the child’s home and then took her from the residence. Naked and mutilated, her body was found two months later in a plastic bag.
Outside the prison, Thornley’s mother told reporters: “It’s a decade too late, but we finally got justice today. I wish my husband were here today. This killed him.”
This week in 1868
“Gentlemen, do you see this hand? Does it tremble? I never hurt a hair of that girl’s head.”
— Tom Dula, aka Thomas C. Dula, convicted of murder, hanging, North Carolina.
Executed May 1, 1868
The name Tom Dula was provincially pronounced “Tom Dooley,” and his case was the basis for the murder ballad of the same name, made famous by folksingers—particularly the Kingston Trio in 1958. Few facts from the case, however, are reflected in the song lyrics and its famous bridge, “Hang down your head Tom Dooley . . .”
In May 1866, Dula and accused accomplice Ann Melton were arrested for the murder of Laura Foster in a sordid love-triangle scenario.
Melton was exonerated a few months after Dula’s execution.
This week in 2009
“Don’t cry, it’s my situation. I got it. Hold tight. It’s going to shine on the golden child. Hold tight. I love you, I’m through with my statement.”
— Derrick Johnson, convicted of murder, lethal injection,Texas.
Executed April 30, 2009
Johnson faced the death penalty for the murder of LaTausha Curry, age twenty-five, whom he robbed, raped, and beat with a two-by four and suffocated with her own clothing. The crime took place “during what authorities determined was part of a two-week crime spree in January 1999 involving Johnson and a companion. During the binge, numerous women were robbed or raped from Dallas to south of Waco,” according to the Associated Press.
During his execution, Johnson tried to comfort his mother, telling her not to cry.
