This week in 1877
To his executioners:
“Center on my heart, boys. Don’t mangle my body.”
— John Doyle Lee, aka John D. Lee, convicted of murder, firing squad, Utah.
Executed March 23, 1877
Lee’s biography begins this chapter, but a few more details: Lee asked a photographer present to send each of his three wives a copy of the photograph taken just prior to his death. Though Lee was excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the ruling was posthumously reversed. Several versions of this speech have been published, each of a different length. His last line has also been reported as “Let them shoot the balls through my heart! Don’t let them mangle my body!”
This week in 1860
Before leaving her jail cell:
Don’t let a crowd see me. I am willing to meet my God, but I don’t want to have a crowd see me die. I die without having any mercy shown on me, or justice. I die for the good of my soul and not for murder. Your courts of justice are not courts of justice—but I will yet get justice, in heaven.”
— Ann Bilanski, convicted of murder, hanging, Minnesota.
Executed March 23, 1860
The only woman executed in Minnesota, Bilanski went through a lengthy trial over the poisoning death of her husband. Despite the state’s attempts to make her hanging private, up to two thousand onlookers rushed the prison doors, and those who did not get in gained vantage points outside. Included in the crowd were some twenty-five to thirty women, some carrying children. Bilanski was accused of having an illicit affair with another man, and many believed that was her motivation for killing her spouse.
This week in 1963
“Gents, this is an educational project. You are about to witness the damaging effect electricity has on Wood.”
— Frederick Wood, convicted of murder, electric chair, New York.
Executed March 21, 1963
After he killed five people, Frederick Wood’s last desire in life was to die, specifically by the electric chair. He made no appeal for a stay of execution, saying he wanted to “ride the lightning” to oblivion. According to newspaper accounts, people around Wood had described him as a derelict.
