axe, and one used a garrote cord for strangulation.
A result of the report was that the New York Legislature, following the governor's request, enacted legislation that legalized electrocution in New York state.
In the background, Edison continued to plot by secretly funding Harold Brown, another inventor who developed the AC electric chair. New York purchased and used Brown's electric chair in the first electrocution. Edison must have been gleeful of the debacle as sensationalized in the newspaper reports, but to no avail. According to Marc, by 1950, "twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia, as well as more than a dozen countries around the world, executed all or some of their capital-case prisoners with the electric chairs."
New York abandoned the chair in 1963 when state courts ruled it as "cruel and unusual punishment." This was ironic, since avoidance of cruel and unusual punishment was one of the primary reasons the chair was developed by Dr. Southwick in the first place.
In 1892, Dr. Southwick became a professor at the newly formed dental school at the University of Buffalo. Marc relates that Dr. Southwick "was dogged by a reputation as a political propagandist for capital punishment" for the rest of his life. The New York State Dental Society refused to recognize the dental school because Southwick only held an "honorific degree conferred by colleagues," which Marc contends "singled out [Dr. Southwick] for embarrassment by a death penalty critic."
Dr. Southwick died at his home in Buffalo in June 1898. He was 72.
Sources:
Articles/books
Life for life. Wichita Daily Eagle. May 31, 1890:2. Accessed March 2, 2014.
Articles/books
continued:
Macleod M. The electric chair: The curious dentist. Crime Library website. Accessed February 26, 2013.
A new agent of death. New York Tribune. January 22, 1888:4. Accessed March 2, 2014.
New York State Commission on Capital Punishment. Report of the commission to investigate and report the most humane and practical method of caring into effect the sentence of death in capital cases. January 17, 1888. Accessed March 2, 2014.
A plan proposed. Great Falls Leader. December 13, 1888:1. Accessed March 3, 2014.
William Kemmler electrocuted. Camden Chronicle. August 8, 1890:2 Accessed March 7, 2014.
Websites:
Alfred Southwick. Wikipedia website. Accessed March 1, 2014.
Electrocuting an elephant. You Tube website. Accessed March 4, 2014.
Marc D. Southwick, Alfred Porter. American National Biography Online website. February 2000. Accessed February 26, 2014.
Spagnoli F. Annals of heartlessness (10): "Let's invent execution by electrocution as a way to settle some business differences." P.A.P.-Blog//Human Rights, Etc. website. October 25, 2011. Accessed March 3, 2014.
Topsy (elephant). Wikipedia website. Access March 4, 2014.
Related Reading:
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Dr. Alfred Southwick and his legacy of the electric chair
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E-MAIL ME ddemers901@sonic.net