This week in 1928

“I am innocent of the killing of that cop. I committed other crimes and I lay that to evil companions. But I didn’t kill the cop. I wouldn’t kill one. Didn’t I try to save the life of one? Graham was one, wasn’t he, and didn’t I try to prove him innocent?”

— George Appel, convicted of murder, electric chair, New York.
Executed August 9, 1928

Police Lieutenant Charles J. Kemmer walked into a Brooklyn restaurant just as Appel and an accomplice finished robbing it. In the ensuing scuffle, prosecutors said, Appel shot Kemmer three times. Though mortally wounded, Kemmer jotted down the plate number of their getaway car. The clue was crucial and landed the partners in jail. The Graham in Appel’s last statement was Daniel J. Graham Jr., a former patrolman convicted of killing a paymaster. Appel, age forty-one, confessed to the murder in prison, but “the evidence was found to be so flimsy, no new trial was ordered,” according to a newspaper account. Graham was executed the same evening as Appel.

Appel’s last words have been erroneously reported as “Gentlemen, you are about to see a baked Appel.”