This week in 1995
“I made a mistake 18 years ago—I lost control of my mind but I didn’t mean to hurt anyone. I have no hate toward humanity. I hope He will forgive me for what I done. I didn’t mean to.”
— John Fearance, convicted of murder, lethal injection, Texas.
Executed June 20, 1995
Fearance’s criminal record included time served for theft and rape. In 1977 he stabbed a neighbor, Larry Faircloth, while burglarizing his home. Earlier that night Fearance, an auto-body repairman, had fought with his wife after she cooked him a meat casserole, which he disliked. He would later say, “I just lost control of my mind. I just snapped.” Fearance was apprehended three hours after the crime, and the victim’s wife identified him.
This week in 1941
In a letter enclosing playing cards—four aces and a joker, with the ace of spades under lined:
“You never know when. Life is like a deck of cards and we are all the jokers. First it’s hearts, then it’s diamonds. Next it’s clubs, and now it’s spades.”
—Edward “Paddy Ryan” Riley, convicted of murder, electric chair, Illinois.
Executed June 20, 1941
Riley, who had had prior convictions and had served time twice in Michigan, held up a tavern in Chicago with two accomplices. In the process, they shot and killed an undertaker and wounded two police officers, one of whom also died. The trio fled to Detroit and were captured. Riley wrote ten letters in his last few hours, seven of them to women. He went to the death chamber quietly.
This week in 1984
“Many of my friends have mentioned to me to look for the light, but I already saw the light when I accepted Christ as Lord many years ago. Only now I get to go stand in it and enjoy it with the Lord.”
— Carl Shriner, convicted of murder, electric chair, Florida.
Executed June 20, 1984
Described by the Associated Press as a “boyish-faced drifter,” Shriner faced the electric chair for the shooting death of store clerk Judith Ann Carter. In an earlier prison interview, the thirty-year-old Shriner said, “Police, prosecutors . . . are powerful. They can make anybody look guilty if they want to.”
