This week in 1939
“I want to praise God I am being taken out of this world of sin tonight and I feel confident that you people will meet us all up there. God bless you all. Pray for my loved ones. That is all.”
As the sheriff adjusted the noose:
“Don’t choke me.”
— W. Lee Simpson, convicted of murder, hanging, Montana.
Executed December 30, 1939
Simpson had a list of sixteen people labeled “Rats” whom he intended to kill. He succeeded in killing three of them—including a sheriff—before he was arrested. After he confessed, Simpson slashed his wrists with broken glass. He survived, but before he passed out from blood loss he wrote a note in his own blood. It said, “The result of a frame-up through my wife and . . .”
This week in 1930
“Father Mac is the greatest man who ever lived.”
— Joseph Calabrese, convicted of murder and robbery, electric chair, New Jersey.
Executed December 29, 1930
“Father Mac” was Rev. Cornelius McInerney, chaplain of the Essex County penitentiary. Calabrese, age twenty- one, also gave the chaplain a rose and “asked him to wear it in his memory,” according to the New York Times. Along with accomplice Arthur Cort—executed minutes later—Calabrese had been convicted of murdering druggist Morris Grossman in a holdup.
This week 1984
To the stepfather and mother of his victim:
“I would just like to say, Mr. and Mrs. Harvey, that I hope you get some relief from my death. Killing people is wrong. That’s why you’ve put me to death. It makes no difference whether it’s citizens, countries or governments. Killing is wrong.”
He then asked the warden to remove his hood and winked at Sister Helen Prejean, his spiritual adviser.
— Robert Lee Willie, convicted of murder, electric chair, Louisiana.
Executed December 28, 1984
Sister Helen Prejean wrote her book Dead Man Walking about Willie and Elmo Patrick Sonnier, and they were the basis for a composite character played by Sean Penn in the film adaptation of the book.
Prejean became spiritual adviser to both men when they were imprisoned for their crimes: Willie was convicted of raping and murdering an eighteen-year-old woman. Sonnier was convicted of murdering a teenage couple in New Iberia and was executed at an earlier date.
