This week in 1933

“I’m sorry to have caused all this trouble.  You seem to be taking harder than I do.”

— John Fleming, convicted of murder, hanging, California
Executed November 17, 1933

Prior resident of Folsom and San Quentin prisons for robbery and assault charges, John Fleming murdered Amos Leece at a gas-station and road house when a prostitute named Peggy O’ Day (aka Leonora Smith) made derogatory remarks to Leece after he refused to buy her a drink.  Leece left the station to crank his car but not before he called O’Day “a cheap, chippy whore.”  Fleming then confronted Leece, demanding that he apologize and then shot him three times when he refused.