On August 6, 1890, at Auburn Prison, New York, William Kemmler became the first person to be sent to the chair. He was convicted of murdering his lover, Matilda Ziegler, with an axe. After he was strapped in, a charge of approximately 700 volts was delivered for only 17 seconds before the current failed. Although witnesses reported smelling burnt clothing and charred flesh, Kemmler was far from dead, and a second shock was prepared. The second charge was 1,030 volts and applied for about two minutes, whereupon smoke was observed coming from the head of Kemmler, who was clearly deceased. An autopsy showed that the electrode attached to his back had burned through to the spine. Electrocution as a humane means of execution was first suggested in 1881 by Dr. Albert Southwick, a dentist. Southwick had witnessed an elderly drunkard “painlessly” killed after touching the terminals of an electrical generator in Buffalo, New York. In the prevalent form of execution at the time—death b...
Four men filmed carrying woman out of bar before she’s ‘gang raped and beaten to death’ Chilling CCTV footage shows four men carrying a drunk woman out of a bar before she was allegedly gang raped and murdered. Nong Gift, 21, had been watching the Champions League final with friends last Saturday in Chanthaburi, Thailand, when she had too much to drink. The cosmetics seller passed out inside the pub, with relatives claiming she was drugged, and was carried out at 2am and put in the back of a pick-up truck by four men who said they would take her home. But the men, including one who is said to have known her, drove her to a secluded orchard where she was allegedly raped and beaten to death. The gang, Nattaphong Saenkraud, 24, Patti Boonthal, 23, Panya Chan Somdee, 18, and Suitsit Jaechim, 24, reportedly confessed their involvement to police. On Wednesday they were taken on a crime re-enactment. During the crime re-enactment the four men were taken to th...