This week in 1943

As the execution began:
“I can’t smell anything yet.”

A moment later:
“It smells like rotten eggs.”

— Warren Cramer, convicted of murder, gas chamber, California.
Executed May 14, 1943

A career pyromaniac and car thief, Cramer had turned to violent assault during the robbery of a drugstore. He pleaded guilty and openly stated that he preferred capital punishment. San Quentin Warden Clinton Duffy described Cramer as a “brilliant” man who thought he had a “rotten streak in his system which he couldn’t control.”