I KILLED FOR THE LAW The Career of Robert Elliott and Other Executioners

Hardback. Written by a death house reporter, this is a biography of a master executioner, Robert Elliott. Elliott gained the distinction of being America's foremost executioner. The author had known and watched him for almost 20yrs; they often chatted about his job and the author's. The book is the result of long research, and experience, rather ghastly experience, in the work of a newspaper and press association writer. Because of the growing (at the time) world-wide interest in capital punishment, particularly execution by electricity, the author was prompted to set down in print, the uncensored details of what we call capital punishment. Chapter headings include : The Executioner; The First Electrocution; Sacco and Vanzetti; Ruth Snyder and Judd Gray; Cigar in His Mouth; Singing to the Chair; American Tragedy; The Laughing Yacob; Richard Bruno Hauptmann; Death and Dahlias; I Have Talked With a Corpse; One he Can't Forget; The Case of Johnny M-; Mother Carey's Hanging; He Wanted to be a Hangman; West Virginia's "Bluebeard"; Elliott's Views; Ghastly Notes; "I, Too Have Died". 194pp. 8vo. h/back. V. lightly browned pp., small mks. to covers (see image) o/w Vg+. Rare.