This week in 1958

“The Doctors said I felt justified when I killed those people and they are right. I did. It was revenge I was after. The love that I was denied because my parents spent too much time doing church work and they still do, and forcing me to stay home and lead the life they wanted me to live. I got my revenge and I am not sorry now and never will be. . . . I’ve had enough of it, I want to die.”

— Barton Kay Kirkham, convicted of robbery and murder, hanging, Utah.
Executed June 7, 1958

Kirkham was an air force deserter who walked into a small grocery store with the intention of robbing it. When he was given a lesser amount of money than he believed was in the store, he brought the store owner into the back room, where he found another woman, and he laid them both on the floor and shot them. After his murder conviction Kirkham said that he chose to hang because of the novelty and publicity, and to inconvenience the state. The St. Petersburg Times recorded his last words as “I’ve asked God to forgive me.”