Electric Chair

Nikola Tesla set out to create wireless electricity. Little did he know one of his inventions would become a staple of sideshows across the world. In 1891, he created the Tesla coil, a high voltage, low currency electrical resonant transformer that relied on alternating currents. Alternating currents would forever change the way electricity was transmitted and kickstart the chain of events known as the “War of the Currents”. The electric chair and other forms of electric execution would be the centerpiece. 

Tesla proposed alternating currents to Thomas Edison as a solution to the problems direct currents faced when transmitting over long distances. Edison stood by his belief that direct currents were the most realistic form of power, starting the“War of the Currents”. In 1887, George Westinghouse, of Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company, understood the potential in Tesla’s alternating current and released alternating current generators, which quickly rose in popularity in both rural areas and cities, cutting into Edison’s electricity monopoly. Westinghouse’s generators became the premier choice for providing electricity, beating out Edison for the contract to light the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair because his generators were able to provide power cheaper. Edison set out to show the country that Westinghouse’s generators were dangerous because they had more voltage passing through the wires.

The electric chair was a concept designed in the 1880s by a New York engineer and dentist, Alfred P. Southwick. He devised it as a death penalty alternative to hanging after seeing a drunk man accidentally kill himself by touching a generator. 

Southwick originally reached out to Edison to assist with the electric chair concept, but Edison was against capital punishment and didn’t want to be associated with it. So he referred Southwick to Westinghouse, with the hopes that the electric chair would be linked to alternating current generators.

To lobby his point about the dangers of alternating currents, Edison sacrificed animals in front of reporters. He would have dogs drink from tins set up to alternating current generators. When the dogs made contact with the tin, they would be electrocuted and die. Edison then held a demonstration for New York State officials with the hopes of getting electricity used for state executions. At this demonstration, he electrocuted calves and a horse. The officials were impressed and wanted to purchase Westinghouse’s generators for their prisons.

Much like Edison, Westinghouse did not want to be associated with capital punishment, so Harold Brown was commissioned by New York State to build the generators. To guarantee the electric chair would be run off of alternating currents, Edison secretly financed the project.

On January 1, 1889, New York became the first state to introduce the capital punishment of death by electric chair. Execution by electricity would become known as “Westinghoused” to upset Westinghouse. 

On August 6, 1890, William Kemmler became the first person to be executed in that fashion. The execution didn’t go as planned. 1,000 volts ran through his body for 17 seconds, then he was pronounced dead. But he wasn’t. Attendees of the execution noticed Kemmler was still breathing, the electricity had just rendered him unconscious. Kemmler was electrocuted again, this time with 2,000 volts, which killed him.

Edison did not think this public execution proved the dangers of alternating currents because it took too long to kill Kemmler. Edison’s next course of action was to publicly execute Topsy the elephant in Coney Island on January 4, 1903. Topsy had been mistreated by her handlers, making her volatile. As a result, she killed a few men. It was originally proposed that she would be hanged, but Edison saw it as an opportunity to prove again alternating currents' killing capabilities.

Despite all Edison's efforts to persuade the public to avoid alternating currents, alternating currents were the way of the future. Alternating currents ended up being used in many different applications, and the electric chair continued to be used in America for decades. On February 8, 2008, the electric chair was declared as "cruel and unusual punishment" by the Nebraska Supreme Court. They became the last state to eradicate the use of electric chairs as a form of execution.

There were a few factors that helped perpetuate the electric chair’s shock value as a performance prop. In 1901, Edison Studios, Thomas Edison’s film production company, produced the silent film “Execution of Czolgosz with Panorama of Auburn Prison”. On September 6 of that same year, Leon Czolgosz assassinated President William McKinley. On October 29, Czolgosz was electrocuted at Auburn Prison. The original plan was to film the execution, but permission was denied, so footage was shot outside the prison on the day of the real execution and it was cut together with reenacted footage of the execution.

As the electric chair gained popularity as a form of execution, more infamous figures were executed in that manner. Those figures would often become immortalized as wax figures. The Eden Musée’s Chambers of Horrors, which included the display "Execution of Criminals by Electricity". The Eden Musée was located in Manhattan from 1884-1915. In 1915, it went bankrupt and the contents were auctioned off. A large portion of the contents, including the Chamber of Horrors and the “Eden Musée” name found a new home in Coney Island. Madame Tussauds had their own Chamber of Horrors which also included famous victims of the electric chair. Common figures were Martha Place, the first woman to die by the electric chair in 1899; Dr. Robert Buchanan, who murdered his wife in 1895; Leon Czolgosz, who assassinated President William McKinley in 1901; Richard Hauptmann, known for the murder and abduction of the Lindbergh baby in 1936.

Ruth Snyder was another figure often immortalized in wax, but also became a tabloid favorite. Her death in 1928 was photographed by Tom Howard using a secret camera. His photograph shows the moment the electricity hit her body, becoming the first photograph of an electric chair execution. The pictures became a media sensation and appeared in newspapers across the country, giving the public their first look at a real electrocution execution.

The use of the electric chair as a performance piece has been around almost as long as the chair itself. Many performers have braved the hot seat, literally. The female performers are typically billed as “Voltess”, “The Electric Lady/Girl”, “Madame/Miss Electra”, there is also the gender-neutral “Human Dynamo” and many other variations playing off “electricity”. There’s usually a story that accompanies the act, typically about how the performer was struck by lightning or stuck their finger in an electrical socket as a child, which gave them the power to touch electricity, thus surviving the electric chair. 

Legend has it that Harry Houdini owned the electric chair from Sing Sing Prison. Others believe Houdini made the chair himself. Nevertheless, he gifted the chair to Walford Bodie, the “Electrical Wizard Of The North”. Bodie was a popular Scottish showman who was known for incorporating the electric chair and other electricity-based acts into his show. He had a unique understanding of electricity from working for the National Telephone Company, allowing him to perform stunts that appeared magical to an audience who had little understanding of how electricity worked at the turn of the century. Bodie had been performing with an electric chair and other electricity-based props for a number of years before Houdini gifted him the chair in 1920.

His routine was very similar to many electric chair routines today. Bodie or his sister-in-law, Isabella Henry, who adopted the stage name La Belle Electra, would sit in the chair. When the chair was turned on they claimed 30,000 volts of electricity passed through their body, allowing them to light up lightbulbs and shoot sparks. 

Showwoman, Adelaide Herrmann, "The Queen of Magic”, found ways to incorporate the electric chair into her performances, as well as many other illusionists at the turn of the century.

The electric chair continues to be a sideshow staple to this day, and wax figures of electric chair victims continue to attract the curious. A version of the electric chair act can be seen performed by our very own Coney Island Circus Sideshow at Sideshows By the Seashore.

From its earliest inception, the electric chair has been for spectators. Edison was trying to prove its danger to audiences and prisons electrocuted people in front of audiences. Audiences still watch in awe as the victim…performer… takes a seat in the chair, except this time they hope the victim lives.

Written by Eliza Rinn