ExecutedToday.com

The elimination of public executions in America might have aimed at public decorum, but it certainly did not remove executions from the domain of spectacle.

Inevitably, death attracts attention.

Over hedge rows — outside prison walls — in pulpits, legislatures, and the rising din of the mass media — the spectacle took new forms.

The next three dates all capture American executions after the end of public hangings … and the new ways this now-secret punishment announced itself in the communities carrying it out.

• Jan. 15: Sue Logue, George Logue and Clarence Bagwell
• Jan. 16: Albert Fish
• Jan. 17: Gary Gilmore