(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.)

“You see an innocent man dying tonight. Thank you, warden. You have been a kind man.”

— Joseph Usefof, convicted of murder, electric chair, New York. Executed December 9, 1920.

Usefof was executed along with three other men for the 1918 murder of subway ticket agent Otto Fialo in the Bronx. Joseph Milano, one of Usefof’s co-defendants, exonerated Usefof in a written confession, which he later retracted. Usefof maintained his innocence; he was the first of his group to be executed because he was considered the most likely to suffer a breakdown.

[Executed with Usefof and Milano were James Cassidy and Charles McLaughlin, along with a fifth man electrocuted for an unrelated murder, Howard Baker. -ed.]

On this day..

• 1988: Sek Kim Wah, thriller
• 1947: Rawagede Massacre
• 2014: Robert Wayne Holsey, despite a drunk lawyer
• 1754: Eleanor Connor, rogue
• 1578: Kort Kamphues, outlaw judge
• 1937: Douglas Van Vlack
• 1727: An Irish deserter at Gibraltar
• 1999: James Beathard, on the word of a known liar
• 1603: The men of the Bye Plot, but not those of the Main Plot
• 2007: Seven Tuareg and Arab civilians
• 1783: The first hangings at Newgate Prison
• 1793: Sydney Carton posing as Charles Darnay