1890: William Kemmler Becomes the First Man to Die in the Electric Chair

On 6 August 1891, William Kemmler was put to death in the electric chair at Auburn Prison in New York. Kemmler's execution was part of the long road of trying to make executions "more humane." Until 1891, the gallows was used in New York, and a series of gruesome hangings caused officials in New York state to look for a new method of putting people to death. Thomas Edison recommended a chair in which an electric current would be used to kill the convicted murderer.

Kemmler has been made, by historians and those who oppose capital punishment, as some sort of "martyr" who was "tortured to death." Kemmler may not have died humanely, but he as no martyr. In fact, Kemmler was a brute, a twisted killer who deserved far more of a painful death than he eventually got. The son of German immigrants, Kemmler was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in May 1860. Both parents were alcoholics, and by the time William was 10 his father had died from being beaten up in a drunken brawl and his mother had died from the effects of a lifetime of alcohol abuse. So, by 1870, Kemmler was on his own - he could not read or write, and he had limited work skills, having apprenticed in his father's butcher shop.