Scott Christianson - The Last Gasp

Wide World Photos, 118

Widmann, Dr. Albert, 150

Wiesel, Elie, 161

Wilder, Billy, 163

Wiley, Dr. Harvey W., 32

Williams, Thomas Clyde, 179

Willkie, Wendell, 138

Willoughby, Ohio, 48, 50

Wilson, President Woodrow, 43, 44, 55

Wilson, Warden Lawrence, 196

Wirth, Christian, 149–50, 155–56

Wisconsin, 184

Wise, Rabbi Stephen, 134

Wise, Robert, 182–83

witnesses to execution, 80–81, 91, 99, 102, 109–10, 115, 189–90, 208, 211, 216, 218, 220

Woker, Gertrude, 41–42

Wolfgang, Marvin E., 201

women, 146, 180–81, 182–83

Women’s Christian Temperance Union, 67

Women’s Peace Union, 84

Woods, Attorney General Grant, 216

Woods, Sam E., 169

World Bank, 170

World Court, 12, 229

World Population Congress, 135

World War I, 1, 14, 34–52, 57–58, 59, 61, 85, 138, 151

World War II, 2, 58, 93, 97, 138, 149–71, 175, 176, 178, 185, 195, 206

Wright, William, 117

Wróblewski, Jerzy, 153

Wyoming, 3, 114, 116–17, 119, 122, 146–47, 206, 212

Wyoming State Tribune , 114

Yale University, 43

Yalta, 164

“yellow peril,” 67, 69, 269n3

Yellowstone National Park, 44

Yom Kippur War, 204

Ypres, 34, 36, 37

Zigeunermischlinge , 132

Zinsser, Dr. Hans, 131

Zinsser, Ellen, 126, 127

Zinsser, Emma Sharmann, 126–27

Zinsser, Frederick G., 126

Zinsser, Gussy, 170

Zinsser, Margaret (“Peggy”), 126, 127, 129

Zinsser & Company, 126

Zündel, Ernst, 213, 221–22

Zurich, Switzerland, 169

Zyklon-B, 7, 8, 10, 91–96, 98, 120, 130, 131, 152–56, 162–66, 165–68, 176, 212–13

With Liberty for Some: 500 Years of Imprisonment in America

Condemned: Inside the Sing Sing Death House

Innocent: Inside Wrongful Conviction Cases

Notorious Prisons: Inside the World’s Most Feared Institutions

Bodies of Evidence: Forensics and Crime

Great Escapes: The Stories Behind 50 Remarkable Journeys to Freedom

Freeing Charles: The Struggle to Free a Slave on the Eve of the Civil War

Starred Review.

Investigative journalist Christianson, author of the award-winning With Liberty for Some , charts the 75-year history of gas chamber execution as well as its intersection with eugenics, the Holocaust, and America’s ongoing capital punishment debate. Christianson is clear that his focus is the United States, underscoring that the chamber’s operation can hardly be described as painless or kind. After the Germans launched the first gas attack during WWI, American scientists and chemical companies—particularly DuPont, which had ties to the German manufacturers that later supplied concentration camps—scrambled to produce their own lethal concoctions. From their earliest incarnations, gas chambers employed various forms of hydrogen cyanide (HCN) pumped into a sealed room where the condemned was strapped to a chair. Despite being developed as a swifter and more painless alternative to death than hanging or electrocution, Christianson describes in graphic detail the numerous botched executions during which death took over 10 agonizing minutes. Though the gas chamber hasn’t been used in America since 1999, Christianson makes a chilling argument for its—and the death penalty’s—abolition. 8 b&w photos.

“Christianson makes a chilling argument for its [the gas chamber’s]—and the death penalty’s—abolition.”

“This sobering work is recommended to all readers interested in exploring the topic.”

“First full-scale history of gas chamber connects murky (and sure-to-be controversial) dots, including Hitler’s adoption of American technology and joint American-German research and development.”

“Christianson has written the definitive (actually, the only) history of the gas chamber. It is a history so complicated and convoluted that it reads almost like something out of Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow.”

University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu.

University of California Press

Berkeley and Los Angeles, California

University of California Press, Ltd.

London, England

© 2010 by The Regents of the University of California

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Christianson, Scott.

The last gasp : the rise and fall of the American gas chamber / Scott Christianson.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-520-25562-3 (cloth : alk. paper)

1. Gas chambers—United States—History. 2. Capital punishment—United States—History—20th century. I. Title.

HV8699.U5C415 2010

364.66—dc22

2009052476

Manufactured in the United States of America

19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This book is printed on Cascades Enviro 100, a 100% post consumer waste, recycled, de-inked fiber.

FSC recycled certified and processed chlorine free. It is acid free, Ecologo certified, and manufactured by BioGas energy.

Text: 10/13 Sabon

Display: Sabon, Franklin Gothic

Compositor: BookMatters, Berkeley

Printer and binder: Maple-Vail Book Manufacturing Group