MYSTERY ELECTRIC CHAIR
2-18-04

Last year one of my readers sent me an e-mail stating that he was in possession of an electric chair. He said he acquired the chair from storage in New York City. My first thought was that it was probably a theatrical prop. Now, after examining dozens of photos of the chair and exchanging numerous e-mails and phone calls, I have my doubts on that theory.

To better study the chair I created a detailed 3D computer model of it

My conclusion, this chair is certainly capable of killing someone.

To see the Chair Plans Click Here (pdf file)
BEWARE, it may take a long time to load.

A unique feature of the design of this chair is the way the body completes a circuit. Traditionally, a circuit is achieved between a skull cap to an electrode strapped on the condemns calf.  Here a circuit is between a skull cap and the heavy, 1/4" copper plate overlaying the top of the arms and running down the front of the legs.

The chair is of simple, heavy oak construction. The legs/back are 4" x 4" oak. Other parts are of 2" x 2" or 2" x 4" oak. All wood components are attached by wood dowels. 

The copper plate over laying the top of the arm rests and the front of the legs are held in place by 4 recessed screws on top and 5 square head bolts on the front. At the bottom the copper wraps around the leg and across the back of the leg. There a heavy duty electrical cable is attached with a bolt. 

On the lower back of the left front leg is a 3 prong locking outlet recessed into the oak. From there a heavy wire exits the wood, follows the bottom of the chair rail and leads back through the bottom of the rear leg then up to the top of the chair back. Where the wire exits the rear of the leg it is protected by a metal sleeve.

The wire runs up the back of the leg protected by a 1" x 2" oak strip.  at the top it runs through the protecting strip of wood. again the wire is protected by a metal sleeve. The wire penetrates the wood an enters a high voltage plug and socket assembly. Engraved on both components is the text Kliegl Bros. NY  The Kliegl Brothers are the oldest stage lighting manufacturer - founded 1896 in New York.

The wire exits the plug assembly and would have led to the missing skull cap. An electrical test shows that there is continuity from leg socket to skull cap wire. At the middle of the top back slat there are a couple of metal brackets and some screw holes that would have attached something vertical to the chair. Every photo of an electric chair that I've seen before, other than this one, has has a back that is high enough to serve as a head restraint. Therefore it is quite possible that a head restraint was attached here.

There is a knife blade switch attached to attached to the left left side of the chair, but it is not wired to anything. It is also mounted on a pine, or other softwood, board which is screwed into the oak. It is much to small to be used in a 2,000 volt circuit. It was probably mounted to show some sort of a relationship between the chair and electricity.

The chair victim would have been held in place by 2 ankle straps, a chest strap, a neck strap and 2 wrists straps. All straps are held in place with 1/4" thick copper brackets. The wrist strap brackets are screwed right into the copper arm rest plate with 6 screws each. the other brackets are screwed right into the wood with 6 screws each..

There are 2 steel devices bolted into the side of the arm wrests. the right hand one gas a hole into it, the left one has a slot. This appears to be part of a device designed to insure contact of the wrists to the copper plate. the bar or device that would have accomplished this is missing.

There are 4 plugged holes through the seat of the chair. They are about 1" in diameter for about 1/2" in depth then 1/2" diameter through the rest of the seat. What were they for?

Click on the thumbnail below to see a 768 x 1024 pixel image of 4 views.

Determining the best way of properly killing someone with electricity took a lot of experimentation. William Kemmler was the first person legally executed by electrocution in New York's Auburn Prison on Aug. 6, 1890.. (New York executed prisoners in 3 different prisons in the early years.) Kemmler was executed sitting in a reclining chair. A skull cap was one electrode and a device placed at the base of his spine was the other. 

One account of this event stated "The first attempt at execution failed: Kemmler was electrocuted for 17 seconds, but remained alive. The voltage was increased to 2000 volts, but the generator needed time to charge up again. During this interval, the badly burnt Kemmler could be heard moaning. The second attempt lasted for over a minute, but the scene was described by many present as gruesome, with a smell of burning flesh and smoke rising from Kemmler's head."

New York next executed 4 murderers in Sing Sing Prison on July 7, 1891 using the second electrode strapped to the condemn's calf. 

Another early New York execution involved fastening the prisoner's hands into buckets of salt water as a second electrode. This method was never tried again.

According to Execution Technologist Fred Leuchter, it took New York almost ten years to figure out what they were doing and that resulted in the Massachusetts style three electrode three legged chair in 1900.

Ohio was the 2nd state to adopt electrocution by executing William Haas and William Wiley on April 21, 1897. By this time New York had electrocuted 36 prisoners in 3 different prisons. Massachusetts was the next state, electrocuting Luigi Storti on Dec. 17, 1901. At this time New York had electrocuted 60 men and 1 woman (Martha Place) and Ohio, 10 men.

I am currently researching the origin of the manufactured electrical components. 

SUMMATION

This is definitely not a stage or movie prop. It is too well constructed. The 1/4" copper plate on the chair was fabricated in a well equipped machine shop. The electrical components and wiring are certainly capable of carrying a 2,000 volt current.

If it was used as a functioning electric chair, the fact that the current is directed through the condemn's arms indicates that it would have to have been built during the decade of experimentation, ending in 1900.

The earliest that it could have been built is 1896, the year that the Kliegl Brothers went into business manufacturing electrical components for lighting.

Between 1896 and 1900 only 2 states used electric chairs for executions, New York and Ohio. New York executed convicts at 3 different prisons.

Between the start of 1896 and the end of 1900 32 people were executed, 23 men and 1 woman in New York and 8 men in Ohio.

Was this chair used to execute any of these convicts?

Added 2-22-04

Coney Island Wax Museum Electric Chair

The first lead I got as to the origin of this chair was that it was an exhibit  in the Coney Island Wax Museum.

Harry Buschman, former employee of the Wax Museum wrote the following about the exhibit.

I worked at the Eden Musee. A house of waxwork figures frozen forever in moments of agony and ecstasy. The original Eden Musee in midtown Manhattan, (until it burned down) was a major attraction for nearly fifty years. It was a far more educational 'Musee' than the one at Coney Island. It presented tableaus depicting the "Signing of the Declaration of Independence," "Lincoln's Gettysburg Address," and "Moses Parting the Waters;" uplifting tableaus with life-like figures caught in climactic moments of mankind's history. But the one at Coney Island concentrated on man's darker side -- "Jack the Ripper," "Lizzie Borden," and "The Crushing of the Slaves by the Shah's Kneeling Elephants."

Harry doesn't recognize the chair. Neither do other Coney Island Historians.

Fred Leuchter, Execution Technologist, visited the wax museum in the early 1950's. He tells me that the electric chair was of the 3 legged variety. The exhibit  was a recreation of the execution of Ruth Snyder who, along with her lover Judd Gray, were electrocuted in the Sing Sing electric chair on Jan. 12, 1928 for murdering her husband. Ruth was the ideal subject for the macabre exhibit. The crime, trial and execution received a tremendous amount of news coverage. After all, Ruth was only the 4th woman electrocuted. Over 1,300 men had been put to death in electric chairs at that time.

This is the infamous photograph that was featured on the front page of the New York Daily News after a reporter with a hidden camera strapped to his leg, took a picture of her at the moment of death.

The Eden Musee wax show was created at Coney Island in 1916 after the Manhattan wax museum burned.

Eden Wax Musee and two other buildings burn in a March 10, 1928 fire. This fire occurred just 2 months after the execution of Ruth Snyder. After creating new exhibits for the new museum, Ruth Snyder's execution must have been a very popular display.

There still exists the possibility that there was a previous electrocution display between the years 1916 and 1928, but if there was such an exhibit it was probably destroyed in the 1928 fire.

Added 2-25-04

Ohio Electric Chair

Ohio became a suspected source of our chair simply because it, along with New York were the only states to use electrocution for capitol punishment in the 19th century. April 21, 1897 was the date of Ohio's first electrocution.

Amy Hollingsworth, of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, informs me that Ohio's original electric chair is in the possession of the Ohio Historical Society. An interesting feature of this chair is that the prisoner was restrained by metal brackets instead of leather straps.

Added 2-25-04

Massachusetts Electric Chair

Massachusetts joined the electrocution club with a December 17, 1901 execution.

This is after the decade of experimentation to find the best protocol for killing someone with electricity.

Added 2-27-04

New York Chairs

New York electrocuted 695 prisoners at 3 different prisons, Auburn, Clinton and Sing Sing.

Thomas McCarthy has developed a totally excellent site for the New York Correction History Society. This site is the source of some of the following information.

Auburn

55 people were electrocuted at Auburn prison between the years 1890 and 1916. One of these executees was Mary Farmer, the second woman to die in an electric chair.

Auburn Chair

"The electric chair was a massive piece of furniture. It had a perforated wooden seat, a foot rest, and a high, slightly sloping adjustable back which supported the head. The arms were broad and flat. Buckles and leather straps, strategically placed to hold the occupant in position, were attached to the chair and to the foot rest in front of it. The chair had only three legs which were fastened to the floor and were properly insulated. The center leg broke during one execution and that to be quickly repaired so that the execution could continue."

"The electric cap contained a sponge which was moistened before the cap was adjusted over the victim's head. In the William Kemmler electrocution one of the electrodes contacted the spine, which caused a problem. This was superseded by a leg electrode in all-remaining electrocutions. A second sponge was placed on the victim's left leg when the electrode was applied there."

Clinton

26 men died in the Clinton electric Chair.

The Clinton Chair

"The chair is the same that was used in Sing Sing prison and but a single improvement has been made since Cotto was electrocuted in it.  The front legs, which formerly interfered a little with a proper strapping of the legs has given way to an arrangement of the front legs of the chair, but which the condemned man’s legs can be fastened securely at the lower part of the calf of the leg.  The executioner’s closed was in the southeast corner, and a gleaming row of lights about the meters and necessary switches on the outside suggested the death-dealing power.  Lying across the arms of the chair was also a row of incandescent lamps on a board, and the chair stood Warden Thayer, Deputy McKenna, Electrician Davis and the doctors.  Several of these gentlemen wore rubbers, as a further protection against any wandering currents of electricity. "

Sing Sing

614 people were electrocuted at Sing Sing Prison.

1890's Death House Photo

Martha Place was the first woman to die in the electric chair. She was executed on March 20, 1899 at Sing Sing prison. All prisoners sentenced to death in 1914 or later were sent to Sing Sing for execution.

Added 2-27-04

Virginia Electric Chair

Bill Crews, my expert on military executions, informs me that early Virginia electrocutions were conducted in a chair using forearm electrodes. 

From a book on the subject entitled: The Carroll County Courthouse Tragedy by Ronald W. Hall

"In Virginia [in 1913], the current was applied by electrodes strapped to the arms, while most other states had already changed to applying it between the shaved head and base of the spine which had proven more reliable... They strapped [Floyd Allen's] arms to the chair and adjusted the electrodes to them and his legs were fastened to the chair by two-inch leather straps." (March 28, 1913)

Note: The spinal electrode was only used once, for the first electrocution, that of William Kemmler.