“I did not merit the electric chair.”
— Lester Brockelhurst, convicted of murder, electric chair, Arkansas.
Executed March 18, 1938
Brockelhurst, a former Sunday school teacher, confessed to killing three men across eighteen states after he and a female companion embarked on a robbery spree.
“I want to warn others of my race. I wish some of them were here to see how we go. It’s awful.”
— Johnny Jones, convicted of rape, hanging, Mississippi.
Executed March 16, 1934
As part of a large spectacle, Jones, twenty-three, and two other young African American men were hung in front of a crowd that mocked and shouted at them while on the platform. Jones was buried in a plain coffin and dumped into a grave that would never be marked.
At least one source spelled Jones’s first name “Johnnie.”
“I am a regular Confederate soldier, and have served in the Confederate army four years. I fought under General Buckner at Fort Donelson, and belonged to General Morgan’s command when he entered Kentucky. I have assisted, and have taken many prisoners, and have always treated them kindly. I was wounded at Cynthiana and cut from my command. I have been in Kentucky ever since. I could prove that I am a regular Confederate soldier, and I hope to die for the Confederate cause.”
— Marcellus Jerome Clarke (aka Sue Mundy, aka Marcus Clark),
convicted of guerrilla activity, hanging, Kentucky.
Executed March 15, 1865
Enlisted in the Confederate Fourth Kentucky Infantry in 1861 at the age of seventeen, Clarke (or Clark) was a part of Morgan’s Raiders from 1862 until Morgan’s death in 1864. Clarke left the group to lead guerrilla warfare throughout Kentucky as the infamous Sue Mundy. According to the Louisville Journal, Clarke said “he was not guilty for one-tenth of the outrages that he had been charged with and that the Louisville Journal had done him a great injustice.” Clarke’s words reflect the belief that the Sue Mundy persona was a creation of the Louisville Journal and meant to embarrass the Union.
Clarke left one final note to a loved one, whom the Journal describes as “a young lady of this State. It read:
“My dear: I have to inform you of the sad fate which awaits your true friend. I am to suffer death this afternoon at 4 o’clock. I send you, from my chains, a message of true love; and, as I stand on the brink of the grave, I tell you I do truly, and fondly, and forever love you.
I am, ever truly, yours. M. Jerome Clark.”