1938: The terrified John Deering
Add comment October 31st, 2009 Headsman
We meet people in these pages who go to the scaffold joking, or sarcastic, or cocksure.
Humans bear up to proximity of death with every psychological defense in the book, but even if surprisingly few die in naked terror, make no mistake this Halloween: there’s a reason the executioner is scary.
Shot Through the Heart
Habitual criminal John Deering had a date with a Salt Lake City firing squad this date in 1938.
If anyone should be nonchalant about being ripped open by bullets, it’s a guy who eschewed a prison sentence in Michigan and confessed to murder to get himself extradited to Utah to face capital murder charges — saying that he and the world would both be better off with him dead.
The 39-year-old put on a cool front, but how steady was he, really? In a weird experiment, Deering agreed to be hooked to an electrocardiogram that measured his heart rate during his last moments.
Here comes the science!
The heart of John W. Deering, holdup murderer, beat three times faster than normal just before he was put to death today by a firing squad in the state prison here. The unprecedented recording was termed valuable to heart disease specialists as it showed clearly the effect of fear.
An electro-cardiograph film, recorded with the condemned man’s permission, showed that Deering’s heart beat jumped from normal 72 to 180, although he appeared outwardly calm. It maintained that rate for the several minutes required to complete preliminaries for the execution.
When the doomed man was asked for a last statement his heart beat fluttered wildly, then calmed after he spoke until bullets ended his life. The heart beat stopped 15.6 seconds after the bullets struck, but he was not pronounced dead until two and a half minutes after the five shots rang out. (Chicago Tribune, Nov. 1, 1938)
Still no cure for cancer.
This guy is obviously not to be confused with his tragic Hollywood contemporary of the same name.
Also On This Date
Possibly Related Executions
- 1915: Joe Hill
- 2001: Robert Lee Massie, who spent a lifetime dying
- 1909: Will James, “the Froggie”, lynched in Cairo
Entry Filed under: 20th Century, Capital Punishment, Common Criminals, Crime, Death Penalty, Execution, Murder, Shot, USA, Utah, Volunteers
Tags: 1930s, 1938, fear, john deering, jon bon jovi, october 31, psychology, salt lake city, science
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