This week in 1904

“I deserve to die, and the sooner they put an end to my troubles the better. I’ve got an uncontrollable temper, and if released would only commit more violent crimes. I’d kill a man for 5 cents as quick as for anything else.”

— Frank Henry Burness, convicted of murder, electric chair, New York.
Executed June 27, 1904

Burness smiled in the execution chamber while awaiting electrocution for killing the captain of a schooner. He boasted that he had killed no fewer than nine people and vowed he’d do it again if given the chance. “Burness” was assumed to be just another alias; his true name was never discovered.