This week in 1930

“I don’t want to die with a lie on my lips. I lied when I said this killing was a result of gin and anger. I deliberately planned a robbery…although, so help me God, I didn’t mean to shoot.”

— August Vogel, convicted of murder, electric chair, Illinois.
Executed May 9, 1930

Vogel was known as “the Whim Slayer” for shooting a man who bumped into his car, according to newspapers. Vogel led a gang of Chicago thieves that included his brother George, who confessed to the murder in a last-ditch effort to save Vogel. Vogel, age twenty-seven, had previously attempted to pin the murder on George. But neither was able to shift the blame, and Vogel was electrocuted as planned.