Gee Jon | |
|---|---|
| 朱家休 | |
 Nevada State Prison mugshot | |
| Born | c. 1895 Canton, Qing China |
| Died | (aged 29) Nevada State Prison, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Execution by gas chamber |
| Other names | Gee Gar Hue [1] [2] Jon Gee [3] |
| Occupation | Cook |
| Height | 5 ft 4 in (1.63 m) [4] |
| Criminal status | Executed |
| Conviction(s) | First degree murder |
| Criminal penalty | Death |
Gee Jon was ordered by Hip Sing officials to perform a gang hit on 74-year-old Chinese laundry proprietor Tom Quong Kee (Chinese :譚光基; pinyin :Tán Guāngjī; Jyutping :taam4 gwong1 gei1), [12] who was a nominal member of the Bing Kong Tong. Hughie Sing, a 19-year-old from Carson City, newly recruited to the Hip Sing Tong and Gee's apprentice of two months, pointed Tom out as a target. They traveled to Mina from Reno on the 18th or 20th of August, reportedly being seen by deputy sheriff W. J. Hammill asking about work at the local Palace Café. By then Hammill had heard rumors that the men he had seen were Tong members in town to kill Tom Quong Kee and were pretending to be job-seekers on their way to Tonopah as a cover.
On the night of August 27, 1921, Gee and Sing knocked on the door of Tom's cabin, the former armed with a .38 caliber revolver. When Tom answered the door in his pajamas, Gee, who was standing behind Sing, killed the elderly man with two shots to the heart. Tom's body was discovered the next morning by one of his friends, reporting his find to justice of the peace L. E. Cornelius, who in turn alerted Hammill. After finding two sets of footprints at the crime scene, Hammill made a possible link to the presence of two strangers he had seen the week before. Gee and Sing were apprehended the same day in Reno after Hammill phoned chief of police John Kirkley about two possible murder suspects driving back from Mina. Their arrests were considered unusual, as other Tong killings typically went unsolved, with at least three additional murders with suspected Tong involvement being reported by the end of August. During interrogation, Sing confessed to his role in the murder and implicated Gee as the one to fire the fatal shots, under the belief that this would lead to his immediate release from custody. [5] [10] [13]
Trial and sentencing
Gee and Sing were defended by attorneys James M. Frame and Fiore Raffetto. [14] Sing recanted his confession and entered a not guilty plea along with Gee. In February 1922, both were convicted and sentenced to death in the District Court of Mineral County, Nevada. Sing's sentence was commuted to life imprisonment because he was only nineteen years old and Gee had been the one to commit the shooting, also highlighting that unlike Gee, who was described as "an illiterate Chinese unacquainted with American customs", Sing had been born in the United States, was educated at a bilingual grammar school and had cooperated with the authorities; he was released on parole in 1938. [5] [7] A bill authorizing the use of lethal gas had passed the Nevada State Legislature in 1921, making Gee eligible to become the first person to be executed by this method. [15] Frame argued that Gee's sentence constituted cruel and unusual punishment, but his appeal was denied. [16] The Supreme Court of Nevada instead complimented the state legislators for "inflicting the death penalty in the most humane manner known to modern science". [15] Raffetto unsuccessfully filed a writ of certiorari with the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. [14] Gee was incarcerated in Nevada State Prison at Carson City and initially intended to be gassed alongside another murderer, Thomas Russell, whose sentence was commuted to life imprisonment a day before the execution date. [17]
Death
Preparation
The California Cyanide Company of Los Angeles, California, was the only distributor of liquid cyanide in the western United States and refused to deliver it to Carson City over liability concerns. The poison was used to eradicate pests from citrus groves in California. Warden Denver S. Dickerson sent his assistant Tom Pickett to Los Angeles to personally pick up 20 lb (9.1 kg) of lethal gas, which was contained in a mobile fumigating unit that cost $700. Four guards who did not want to participate in the process had resigned. [18] The officials first attempted to pump poison gas directly into Gee's cell while he was sleeping, [15] but without success because the gas leaked from the cell. [8] A makeshift gas chamber was set up at the butcher shop of the prison, [19] measuring eleven feet long, ten feet wide, and eight feet high. [7] A small window next to the wooden chair allowed witnesses to look inside. [19] A day before the execution, two cats were used to test the lethal effectiveness of the chamber. It was declared that the animals "died apparently instantly and without pain" in 15 seconds. [17] [20]
Execution
Gee Jon was executed in the morning hours of February 8, 1924. Gee, who had fasted for ten days before his execution date, agreed to have a last meal, consisting of ham, eggs, toast, and a cup of coffee. [5] A guard transporting Gee to the gas chamber reportedly muttered "Die like a man, Jon" to the inmate as he was tied onto a metal bench while the cyanide was being prepared. [21] Gee wept as he was strapped into the chair until the captain of the guards told him to "Brace up!" [22] Around a dozen attendees, including news reporters, public health officials, and representatives of the U.S. Army, served as witnesses to the execution, [18] many of whom smoked cigarettes before and during the execution, believing that tobacco smoke would act "as protection against vagrant gas fumes that might drift their way". [21]
At 9:40 a.m. [18] the pump sprayed 4 lb (1.8 kg) of hydrocyanic acid into the chamber. [7] The weather was cold and humid. [18] Because an electric heater failed, the chamber was 52 °F (11 °C) instead of the ideal 75 °F (24 °C), causing some of the acid to form a puddle on the floor. Gee turned his head to look for the source of the noise, then appeared to lose consciousness in about five seconds, with his head continuing to nod up and down for six minutes. [7] He was completely motionless after ten minutes. Some of the witnesses momentarily thought they smelled the odor of almond blossoms, thought to be the odor of cyanide, leaking from the chamber. The warden had the witnesses cleared from the area. At about 10:00 a.m., a vent was opened, and a fan was turned on to discharge the poison gas. [18] The prison staff waited for the remaining puddle of hydrocyanic acid to evaporate before cleaning up the chamber. [23] Gee's body was removed from the chamber at 12:20 p.m. and taken to the prison hospital. A group of seven doctors pronounced him dead but did not conduct an autopsy on the body out of concern that some remaining gas could be released. [18] Gee was 29 years old when he died and his body was buried at the Carson City Penitentiary cemetery. [6]
Just after the execution, one of the physicians who examined Gee's body, Dr. Delos A. Turner, a Major of the U.S. Veterans' Bureau in Reno, asked for permission to perform medical experiments "in the interests of science." Turner wanted to inject Gee's corpse with camphor believing that it would bring Gee back to life. Dickerson denied the request. [5] Another physician professed his belief that Gee had not died by gas inhalation but due to "cold and exposure". [24]
Reaction
Newspapers reported overwhelmingly positive on the new execution method, citing witnesses who described Gee's death as painless by their own judgement. The Nevada State Journal proclaimed, "Nevada's novel death law is upheld by the highest court—humanity." However, the San Jose Mercury News printed, "One hundred years from now Nevada will be referred to as a heathen commonwealth controlled by savages with only the outward symbols of civilization." [18]
Warden Dickerson reported to Nevada governor James G. Scrugham and the legislature his opinion that the use of lethal gas was impractical and that he thought execution by firing squad was still the best method of execution. [7]
See also
Related Research Articles
The electric chair is a specialized device used for capital punishment through electrocution. The condemned is strapped to a custom wooden chair and electrocuted via electrodes attached to the head and leg. Alfred P. Southwick, a Buffalo, New York dentist, conceived this execution method in 1881. It was developed over the next decade as a more humane alternative to conventional executions, particularly hanging. First used in 1890, the electric chair became symbolic of this execution method.
A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or other animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. Poisonous agents used include hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide.
Fred Arthur Leuchter Jr. is an American manufacturer of execution equipment and Holocaust denier, best known as the author of the Leuchter report, a pseudoscientific document alleging there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Prior to the document's publication, he was contracted by authorities of several U.S. states to improve the designs of instruments for capital punishment. He was charged in Massachusetts with misrepresenting himself to penitentiaries as an engineer, despite having no relevant qualifications. He plea bargained with state prosecutors and received two years' probation. He has also been accused of running a "death row shakedown", where he threatened to testify for the defense in capital cases if he was not given contracts for his services by that state.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Nevada.
Old Sparky is the nickname of the electric chairs in Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. Old Smokey is the nickname of the electric chairs used in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. "Old Sparky" is sometimes used to refer to electric chairs in general, and not one of a specific state.
An execution chamber, or death chamber, is a room or chamber in which capital punishment is carried out. Execution chambers are almost always inside the walls of a maximum-security prison, although not always at the same prison where the death row population is housed. Inside the chamber is the device used to carry out the death sentence.
Denver Sylvester Dickerson was an American politician. He was the 11th governor of Nevada from 1908 to 1911. A member of the Silver – Democratic coalition party, he had previously held office as the 13th lieutenant governor of Nevada from 1907 to 1908. During his governorship, Dickerson worked to reform the state prison system.
Mina is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Mineral County in west-central Nevada, United States. It is located along U.S. Route 95 at an elevation of 4,560 feet (1,390 m). The population at the 2020 census was 127.
An execution van is a vehicle in which prisoners are executed through lethal injection. The vehicle is equipped with an execution chamber with a bed that physically restrains prisoners while lethal injections are administered. Execution vans have been used in China since 2003.
Ely State Prison (ESP) is a medium security penitentiary located in unincorporated White Pine County, Nevada, about 9 miles (14 km) north of Ely. The facility, operated by the Nevada Department of Corrections, opened in July 1989. As of 2010, the prison has a staff of 406 and is a major employer in the Ely area. As of September 2010, the prison housed 1,077 male inmates.
The Hip Sing Association or HSA, formerly known as the Hip Sing Tong, is a Chinese-American criminal organization/gang formed as a labor organization in New York City's Chinatown during the early 20th century. The Cantonese name "Hip Sing" translates roughly to "cooperating for success." The Hip Sing Tong, along with their rivals the Four Brothers and the On Leong Tong, would be involved in violent Tong wars for control of Chinatown during the early 1900s. During the 1930s and 1940s, the Hip Sings were involved in drug trafficking operations with the Kuomintang (KMT) and later the Office of Policy Coordination (OPC). They would later establish chapters in Chinese-American communities throughout the United States in major cities such as Chicago, Seattle and San Francisco. Recently some branches have begun to transform back into the legitimate fraternal organization they started as over a century prior.
Jimmy Lee Gray was an American criminal convicted for the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of three-year-old Deressa Jean Scales in 1976. At the time of this murder, he was free on parole after serving seven years of a 20-year-to-life sentence for the 1968 murder of his 16-year-old girlfriend, Elda Louise Prince, in Parker, Arizona. Scales's parents later sued the state of Arizona for releasing Gray.
Jesse Walter Bishop was an American criminal convicted of the December 1977 murder of David Ballard during a robbery at a Las Vegas Strip casino. Bishop was executed in 1979 by the state of Nevada via gas chamber, becoming the first person to be executed in Nevada since 1961. He was also the first person to be executed in Nevada since the reinstatement of capital punishment, and the first person to be executed in the gas chamber since then. Overall, he was the third person in the U.S. to be executed since the reinstatement, after Gary Gilmore and John Spenkelink. Bishop had spent twenty years of his life incarcerated for various felony offenses and bragged about having committed an estimated eighteen homicides.
Nevada State Prison (NSP) was a penitentiary located in Carson City. The prison was in continuous operation since its establishment in 1862 and was managed by the Nevada Department of Corrections. It was one of the oldest prisons still operating in the United States. The high security facility housed 219 inmates in September 2011. It was designed to hold 841 inmates and employed a staff of 211.
Leung Ying was a Chinese mass murderer who killed 11 people on a farm near Fairfield, California, on August 22, 1928. He escaped the scene, but was arrested by police the next day and sentenced to death on August 31. Leung killed himself in his prison cell on October 22, about two weeks before his set execution date.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Mississippi.
Andriza Mircovich was an Austro-Hungarian national of Serb descent. He was the only prisoner ever to be executed by shooting in the US state of Nevada. He had been sentenced to death for the premeditated murder of John Gregovich in Tonopah, Nevada. Mircovich felt that he was owed more money from Gregovich's administration of his late cousin's estate and resorted to settling the matter by stabbing Gregovich to death.
Just Loomis is a fine art photographer known for his portraiture and fashion photography. His work has been published and exhibited internationally and has appeared in Harper's Bazaar, British Vogue, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and The New York Times Magazine. His book of American portraits, "As We Are" was published in 2010 by Hatje Cantz.
Scott Raymond Dozier was a convicted American murderer on death row in Nevada for the 2002 murder of 22-year-old Jeremiah Miller, who was one of Dozier's drug associates. He would have been the first inmate executed by the state of Nevada in more than a decade, but died by suicide in prison before this could take place after a lengthy battle to carry out his death sentence by the state.
References
- ↑ Chan, Loren B. (1975). "Example For The Nation: Nevada's Execution of Gee Jon" (PDF). Nevada Historical Society Quarterly. p. 25.
- ↑ https://epubs.nsla.nv.gov/statepubs/epubs/210777-1976-1Spring.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
- ↑ https://epubs.nsla.nv.gov/statepubs/epubs/210777-1976-1Spring.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
- ↑ Chan, Loren B. (1975). "Example For The Nation: Nevada's Execution of Gee Jon" (PDF). Nevada Historical Society Quarterly. p. 25.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Chan, Loren B. (1975). "Example For The Nation: Nevada's Execution of Gee Jon" (PDF). Nevada Historical Society Quarterly. p. 90-106 (p. 25-33 on PDF).
- 1 2 "Nevada State Prison Inmate Case Files: Gee Jon". Nevada State Library and Archives. July 11, 2003. Archived from the original on May 27, 2008. Retrieved November 3, 2010.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Reid, John Bevis; James, Ronald Michael (2004). Uncovering Nevada's Past: A Primary Source History of the Silver State. University of Nevada Press. p. 108. ISBN 978-0874175677 . Retrieved November 3, 2010.
- 1 2 "Descriptions of Execution Methods: Gas Chamber". Death Penalty Information Center. 2010. Retrieved November 3, 2010.
- ↑ Reid, John Bevis; James, Ronald Michael (2004). Uncovering Nevada's Past: A Primary Source History of the Silver State. University of Nevada Press. p. 108. ISBN 978-0874175677 . Retrieved November 3, 2010.
- 1 2 3 4 Daniels, Roger (1988). Asian America: Chinese and Japanese in the United States since 1850. University of Washington Press. p. 85. ISBN 978-0295801186 . Retrieved November 3, 2010.
- ↑ https://epubs.nsla.nv.gov/statepubs/epubs/210777-1976-1Spring.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
- ↑ Chew, Ng Poon (February 8, 1924). "朱家休被执行死刑". Chung Sai Yat Po.
- ↑ Christianson, Scott (2010). The Last Gasp: The Rise and Fall of the American Gas Chamber . University of California Press. p. 1. ISBN 9780520255623 . Retrieved November 3, 2010.
Gee Jon.
- 1 2 Chan, Loren (Summer 1975). "Example for the Nation: Nevada's Execution of Gee Jon". Nevada Historical Society Quarterly. 18 (2): 90–106. Retrieved November 8, 2010.
- 1 2 3 Gerber, Rudolph Joseph; Johnson, John M. (2007). The Top Ten Death Penalty Myths: The Politics of Crime Control. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 9–10. ISBN 978-0275997809 . Retrieved November 3, 2010.
- ↑ Palmer, Louis J. (2001). Encyclopedia of Capital Punishment in the United States. McFarland & Company. p. 315. ISBN 978-0786409440 . Retrieved November 3, 2010.
- 1 2 "Chinese Dies Quickly From Lethal Fumes". The Evening Independent. February 8, 1924. p. 1.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Christianson, Scott (2010). Fatal Airs: The Deadly History and Apocalyptic Future of Lethal Gases That Threaten Our World. ABC-CLIO. pp. 49–51. ISBN 978-0313385520 . Retrieved November 3, 2010.
- 1 2 Bryant, Clifton D. (2003). Handbook of Death and Dying. SAGE Publications. pp. 362–363. ISBN 978-0761925149 . Retrieved November 3, 2010.
- ↑ "First Execution By Gas Is Declared A Success". Ellensburg Daily Record. February 9, 1924. pp. 1, 11.
- 1 2 "Lethal Gas Ends Slayer's Life". The Toledo News-Bee. February 9, 1924. p. 1.
- ↑ Vila, Bryan (1997). Capital Punishment in the United States: A Documentary History. Greenwood Press. pp. 78–79. ISBN 978-0313299421 . Retrieved November 3, 2010.
- ↑ Banner, Stuart (2002). The Death Penalty. Harvard University Press. p. 198. ISBN 978-0674020511 . Retrieved November 3, 2010.
- ↑ "Nevada Refuses To Abolish Gas". The Norwalk Hour. January 17, 1925. p. 3.
Further reading
External links
- 1924: Gee Jon, debuting the gas chamber at ExecutedToday.com
- State of Nevada v. Gee Jon, 211 pp. 676–1923
- Gee Jon's chair at themobmuseum.org
| Gee Jon | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese | 朱家休 | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
