:09:04
I was in the same room that
people like Sacco and Vanzetti
were executed in.
:09:17
I learned a number of things
from the inmates that
normally would be illegal...
:09:21
but have proved
very useful to me
in my later life,
:09:26
things like picking locks
and cracking safes and--
:09:29
I learned all kinds
of strange things
as a youngster.
:09:40
I came into
the execution field...
:09:44
from a back-door
standpoint,
:09:46
because I was very concerned
about the humanitarian aspects
of death by torture,
:09:52
similar to what happened
in the state of Florida
two years ago...
:09:55
with Mr.Jesse Tafero,
:09:57
where they actually
set the man's head on fire.
:10:01
Once the chair broke in half
in the state of New York,
:10:05
and the individual
lay writhing on the floor
of the death chamber...
:10:09
crying for 35 or 40 minutes
while the carpenters
repaired the chair.
:10:13
They burnt
the transformer up.
:10:15
Fortunately,
due to the quick thinking
of the prison electrician,
:10:19
they had some cable,
they ran some wires
over the prison wall...
:10:22
and tapped into
the outside power line...
:10:25
without the consent
of the power company, but
there was no objection later.
:10:29
They had one execution...
:10:31
where the transformer
caught on fire and blew up,
:10:35
and it occurred
in such a sequence...
:10:38
that all it did was knock
the individual unconscious.
:10:41
He came out of it with
no apparent brain damage,
no problem.
:10:45
Six months later they repaired
the electric chair...
:10:48
and they did successfully
execute him.
:10:50
But, I mean,
he was very lucky.
:10:53
He was hit with
a full jolt of electricity,
:10:56
the equipment blew up,
burned up...