“I deserve this. Tell everyone I said good-bye.”
— Charles William Bass, convicted of murder, lethal injection, Texas.
Executed April 12, 1986
After robbing a lounge at gunpoint, Bass was coincidentally stopped by two city marshals on a traffic warrant. When the officers noticed that Bass’s pockets were stuffed with rolls of coins and dollar bills, he pulled a pistol, shot at both men, and killed one.
“I am Jesus Christ—look what they have done to me.”
— Aaron C. Mitchell, convicted of murder, gas chamber, California.
Executed April 12, 1967
Having left school and his drunken, abusive father behind in Tennessee, Mitchell spent considerable spans of time in Missouri and Colorado prisons. After attempting to rob a tavern, he killed Officer Arnold Gamble in a gunfight outside the establishment. Many campaigned to save Mitchell from the chamber, and he did an interview for Ebony magazine in which he said, “Every Negro ever convicted of killing a police officer has died in that gas chamber, so what chance did I have? . . . I’m not bitter, I don’t think. But I know that my being a Negro has been a big factor in everything that’s happened to me.”
— Aaron C. Mitchell, convicted of murder, gas chamber, California.
Executed April 12, 1967
Having left school and his drunken, abusive father behind in Tennessee, Mitchell spent considerable spans of time in Missouri and Colorado prisons. After attempting to rob a tavern, he killed Officer Arnold Gamble in a gunfight outside the establishment. Many campaigned to save Mitchell from the chamber, and he did an interview for Ebony magazine in which he said, “Every Negro ever convicted of killing a police officer has died in that gas chamber, so what chance did I have? . . . I’m not bitter, I don’t think. But I know that my being a Negro has been a big factor in everything that’s happened to me.”
“I’m ready. I’ve been ready for a long time.”
— Louise Peete (aka Louise Peete Judson or Lofie Louise Preslar) , convicted of murder, gas chamber, California.
Executed April 11, 1947
Facing the gas chamber for the murder of an elderly woman, Peete had already spent twenty- five years in San Quentin for the shooting death of a man. Between those murders, two husbands from her three marriages had committed suicide. One reporter observed that she “kept a roomful of newsmen guffawing. . . . It was a most amazing interview with a woman about to die.”