New York's Electric Chairs

1890 - 1963

695 Executions
including 9 Women

Kemmler Chair, 1 Execution

Auburn Chair, 53 Executions

Sing Sing Chair - Old Sparky - 613 Executions *

Clinton (Dannemora) Chair, 27 Executions

In the 2nd half of the 19th Century the New York Legislature decided that the "standard" method of execution, hanging, frequently failed to achieve the desired result of break the convict's neck. The result was a slow, agonizing death by strangulation. 

In New York State, by law, the Sheriff of the County in which the crime occurred was designated to be the executioner. He was also responsible for the design and construction of the gallows. The main problem was lack of experience. The Sheriff was an elected official. If you eliminate the New York City executions, typically several decades elapsed between hangings in any individual county. Very few Sheriffs conducted more than 1 execution. Most  were lucky enough to have no executions during their term in office.

The story of Edison and the Electric Chair is published on dozens of websites, so I won't repeat it here, but the result was the most popular method of execution in the 20th Century.

The Auburn chair was destroyed in a prison riot and fire in 1929, the Dannemora chair was later moved to the state prison guard training facility in Albany, New York, where it still remains today. The Sing Sing Chair, in which 614 men and women died over its long career, is on loan to the Newseum in Arlington, VA. An exact replica, built by Sing Sing Prisoners, can be found at the Sing Sing Museum in Ossining, NY's Caputo Community Center.

*McElvaine Chair, 1 Execution

Upon Edison’s suggestion, New York officials attempted to use liquid hand electrodes for the Feb. 8, 1892 execution of Charles McElvaine at Sing Sing. This method was a total failure so the skullcap and leg electrode were attached to him and he was fatally electrocuted by the conventional method.