(Thanks to Robert Elder of Last Words of the Executed — the blog, and the book — for the guest post on the anniversary of what was then the first execution in Indiana for nearly 20 years. Fans of this here site are highly likely to enjoy following Elder’s own pithy, almanac-style collection of last words on the scaffold. -ed.)
“I don’t hold no grudges. I’m sorry it happened. I know what I’m doing.”
— Steven T. Judy, convicted of rape and murder, electric chair, Indiana.
Executed March 9, 1981
A serial rapist, Judy openly courted capital punishment. At his trial for killing a woman and her three children (ages five, four, and two), Judy told a jury to condemn him or else he might kill them, their children, and the judge. He showed no remorse for the murders, telling reporters, “I don’t lose sleep over it.” Judy asked for death. “I’ve lived my hell,” he said. “So [what waits for me] has to be better.”
On this day..
- 1892: The People's Grocery Lynchings of Memphis
- 1803: Jillis Bruggeman, the last executed for sodomy in the Netherlands
- 2016: Coy Wayne Westbrook
- 1705: William Pulman, Edward Fuller, and Elizabeth Herman
- 1524: Klaus Hottinger, sausage radical
- 1422: Jan Zelivsky, Hussite defenestrator
- 2001: Willie 'Ervin' Fisher, traveling man
- 1784: Anton Joseph Suter, Appenzell politician
- 1816: Five Boers for the Slachter's Nek Rebellion
- 1950: Timothy Evans, instead of John Christie
- 1009: St. Bruno of Querfurt
- 1944: Emanuel Ringelblum, historian of the Warsaw Ghetto