(Thanks to Robert Elder of Last Words of the Executed — the blog, and the book — for the guest post. 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 mind it. My love to mother and tell Mrs. Lawes I appreciate all she did for me.”
Waving to a guard:
“How is it, Sarge?”—Francis “Two-Gun” Crowley, convicted of murder, electric chair, New York.
Executed January 21, 1932
Crowley killed patrolman Frederick Hirsch after the officer asked for his driver’s license. Characterized by the press as a “petty city thug,” Crowley had been wanted for questioning in another murder case. After fleeing, Crowley, his girlfriend, and an accomplice staged a two-hour standoff with police, during which he wrote the following: “Underneath my coat will lay a weary kind of heart what wouldn’t hurt anything. I hadn’t anything else do to. That’s why I went around bumping off cops.”
Crowley’s last words previously had been reported as “You sons of bitches. Give my love to Mother,” but no original record of this account could be found.
On this day..
- 2014: Li Hao
- 1867: Ciosi and Agostini, at the Polygone of Vincennes
- 1716: Stefan Cantacuzino, Wallachian prince
- 1876: Marshall Crain, Bloody Williamson killer
- Daily Double: Saddam Hussein crushes a coup
- 1970: Twenty-two in Baghdad
- Feast Day of Saint Agnes
- 1535: Six Protestants for the Affair of the Placards
- 1880: Daniel Searles, the first hanging in Tioga County
- 1943: Hemu Kalani, Sindh revolutionary
- 1670: Claude Duval, gentleman highwayman
- 2001: Larry Keith Robison
- 1793: Louis XVI