1933: John Fleming, not taking it too hard
Add comment November 17th, 2016 Robert Elder
(Thanks to Robert Elder of Last Words of the Executed — the blog, and the book — for the guest post. This post originally appeared on the Last Words blog. 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’m sorry to have caused all this trouble. You seem to be taking harder than I do.
— John Fleming, convicted of murder, hanging, California
Executed November 17, 1933
Prior resident of Folsom and San Quentin prisons for robbery and assault charges, John Fleming murdered Amos Leece at a gas-station and road house when a prostitute named Peggy O’Day (aka Leonora Smith) made derogatory remarks to Leece after he refused to buy her a drink. Leece left the station to crank his car but not before he called O’Day “a cheap, chippy whore.” Fleming then confronted Leece, demanding that he apologize and then shot him three times when he refused.
On this day..
- 1925: Fritz Angerstein, crime without criminal - 2019
- 1541: Claude Le Painctre, giving himself willingly to be burned - 2018
- 1787: Margaret Savage, repeat offender - 2017
- 1698: Sarah, for her whoredoms - 2015
- 1326: Edmund FitzAlan, the Earl of Arundel - 2014
- 1922: Taffy Long, Herbert Hull, and David Lewis, Rand rebels - 2013
- 1600: The corpses of John and Alexander Ruthven, for the Gowrie conspiracy - 2012
- 1802: Jacques Maurepas and his entire family - 2011
- 1998: Kenneth Allen McDuff, Texas nightmare - 2010
- 1909: Leonard Groce and Lee Roy Cannon, American mercenaries in Nicaragua - 2009
- 1939: Nine Czech students - 2008
- 1720: Captain John "Calico Jack" Rackham - 2007
Entry Filed under: 20th Century,California,Capital Punishment,Common Criminals,Crime,Death Penalty,Execution,Guest Writers,Hanged,Murder,Other Voices,USA
Tags: 1930s, 1933, john fleming, november 17
Recent Comments