This week in 2008
Asked if he’d like to make a final statement:
“For what? You motherf****** haven’t paid any attention to anything I’ve said in the last 22½ years, why would anyone pay any attention to anything I’ve had to say now?”
— Richard Cooey II, convicted of murder, lethal injection, Ohio.
Executed October 14, 2008
Cooey entered death row at age nineteen after his conviction for killing two college students with an accomplice in 1986. Before his death, his lawyers unsuccessfully argued that Cooey, by then age forty-one, was morbidly obese and medically unfit forexecution.
This week in 1920
“Are—they—really—going—to—hang—me? Don’t— let—them. Save me. Jesus—Mary—Joseph. My little baby! My wife! . . . I’m—going—my—rest. Take— care—me. Where are you, Mr. Meisterheim [his jailer]? Talk to me.”
Meisterheim:
“Be brave, Frank. It’ll be over in a minute.”
“Shake hands once more then. Are they—really going—
to hang me?”
— Frank Campione, convicted of robbery and murder, hanging, Illinois.
Executed October 14, 1920
Part of the Cardinella Gang, Campione and company were responsible for more than four murders and 250 holdups and burglaries, according to authorities. The gang killed Albert Kubalanzo for $6.30. During the months he was in jail and on trial, Campione sang lullabies to his pillow night and day. Even when admitting that he had been feigning madness, Campione held the pillow. “I’ll die happy if you let me keep this pillow with me,” he said. “It reminds me of my baby son.”
This week in 1933
“It looks pretty dark, but if I have to, I guess I can take my
medicine.”
— Morris Cohen, convicted of murder, electric chair, Illinois.
Executed October 13, 1933
A thirty-eight-year-old barber, Cohen got the electric chair for the murder of Officer Joseph Hastings during a robbery attempt at Chicago’s Navy Pier. A secondary headline in the Chicago Daily Tribune read “Record for Speedy Justice Is Set.” He had been executed less than two months after the crime.
