Beard Laws (00:00.582)
Welcome back, Yorktownians. What's up, Meg? Hey. We did it. We're back. It like forever since we've been in the studio. We double dipped. We made a double recording because we went on vacation. It was nice, wasn't it? was. We got another fun little episode that is inspired because of that trip. I mean, it's fun for us. Not so fun for the person that is in the story, obviously. But hey, you do stupid things sometimes. What's the old saying? Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

Yep. This person, think of all of them. But like I said, we had a little vacation. went to Lake Placid and explored, you know, for our anniversary and everything. And we stumbled, maybe pun intended, on a tasting room for a brewery called Prison City Brewery. It was awesome, wasn't it? It was. Spent a lot of our time there and just kind of enjoyed it. It a good environment, good beverages and shot out map. Prison City Brewery up in the Lake Placid location. Loved it.

Agreed. Yeah. So as we were sitting there, you know, it was a pretty educational, apparently, visit because there was a lot of, you know, things that were going on there. And then the story came up for Matt that was saying that there was this lady that was in here and thought that the beer called Crispy Boys, which is a, you know, a lighter lager, I believe. Don't come at me if that's wrong, but it's a little it's a lighter beer. And she said, I can't

And then you say that she refused to drink it and actually left because the name Crispy Boy, she thought, was inspired by the electrocution chair. got up and left. So I was like, you have to tell everybody that that was the inspiration from. We don't know what inspired the name Crispy Boys, but I did happen to potentially write an episode of the Or Tom podcast that we're about to do from the prison city tasting room

Lake Placid. So if you guys are in the Auburn, New York area, that's where the main brewery is. If you guys are in Lake Placid, highly recommend going to check out the Tasting Room and tell Matt that we sent you. He's probably not going to know what the heck the Your Town podcast is, but tell him the guy with the beautiful woman and the guy with a really big beard sent you. He will probably know that. Maybe. I don't know. Maybe if anybody knows the real story behind the name, could let us know

Beard Laws (02:23.664)
Yeah, whether it's, know, the actual brewery people. But I mean, at this point, do you think that the actual brewery people would admit that, inspired by the electrocution chair? Because there is a prison in Auburn in the, know, yeah, and it's prison city because of the places. there's a theme behind the names of all their drinks. we're going to go with the electrocution chair. So we dove into this. And if you didn't read the description, you just stumbled upon it. We're going to tell you the first lecture.

Chair Execution, The Real Story of William Kembler. It's a pretty shocking episode. So should we do the intro and jump right I like what you did there. Thank you. Thank you. Want to do the intro? Yeah. When? Now. OK.

Beard Laws (03:23.556)
So I figured we should probably really set the stage. We should really kind of get you to understand the significance of William Kemmler's execution. So let's do this. ready? All right. So we just kind of wanted to look at the context of capital punishment. Kind of started off in the late 19th century. So much different time than now. So by the 1880s, hanging was actually the most common method of execution in the United States.

However, it was often seen as a inhumane and sometimes the hangings went terribly wrong, leading to prolonged suffering for the condemned. So let's go ahead and enter Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse. You ever heard of them? Mm -hmm. Well, they're two giants of the electrical industry who were locked in a fierce battle known as the War of Currents. Dun, dun, dun. Ooh. Edison.

championed the direct current, which is known as DC, while Westinghouse backed the alternating current AC. Edison, eager to discredit AC as dangerous on opportunity to use it in its executions, suggesting that it was more suitable for killing than for general use. He even coined the term Westinghoused to describe being executed by AC. Interesting battle, So now let's introduce. And then they merged. Then did

to create ACDC. Was that the right one? Sorry. That was good. My brain didn't go that way. And their symbol is the little lightning bolt. so you heard it here first, you're Italian. ACDC, the band actually got the inspiration from Auburn prison with the electrical chair and thanks to prison city brewery and all of this coming together. So ACDC, if you're still touring or ACDC cover band.

Look up prison city, do a free show thanks to Yorktown, but invite us because I'd love to go there, would you? Yeah, OK, we're in. Let's introduce William Kemmler, the man in the center of this story. was born in 1860. He had a troubled life, I think, like most people that end up in this situation after his parents died when he was young. He turned to alcohol and crime to cope, which is very fitting in this story, right? March 29th, 1889, in a drunken rage, he kills his common law wife.

Beard Laws (05:45.692)
Tilly Ziegler with a hatchet. He was quickly arrested, tried, and sentenced to death. Given the recent development of the electric chair, Kemmler's execution became a test case for this new method of capital punishment. So the electric chair was actually developed by Alfred P. Southawik. What do think the P stands for? Paul. You think so? You think it's Alfred Paul? Mm -hmm. I was thinking like, Perlewitz.

or something. Okay. Alfred Paul Southwick was a dentist, believed it would be a more humane method of execution using the electric chair. So the New York state government, convinced by Edison's arguments and Southwick's design, decided to adopt the electric chair as the state's primary method of execution. The chair was built and installed at Auburn Prison. It was a complex machine that involved straps, electrodes, and a generator to deliver the fatal

current. But remember, and I actually try to get onto the Yorktown Instagram or maybe even on the BeardLaw Studio one, I will try to post some pictures of some early editions of this chair and Zach, if you're listening, you want to keep running that? I haven't posted anything on the Yorktown Instagram. I'm sorry, I've got the BeardLaw Studio. Check it out. BeardlawStudio .com. And we'll put it there. Should we put it there? Yeah. Or Yorktown .com. One of the two. Turns out it's a lot to keep managing all those websites, I'm going to teach Meg how to manage websites.

Okay. That's a no. Sorry, we haven't got your $50 ,000 a year yet to get you on camera, but that's them. That's on them. That's not on me. All right. So, Kemmler's case didn't proceed smoothly. His lawyers argued that the electrocution was cruel and unusual punishment violating the Eighth Amendment. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which, spoiler alert, they ruled in favor of the state. Public opinion was actually divided. Some saw the electric chair as a scientific advancement that would ensure quick

painless deaths while the others pretty horrified by the idea of electrocuting a human being. Could you imagine? It's the late 1800s and you're going they're gonna do what to this person? Great. But it's gotta be better than hanging what they got going on right? obviously newspapers covered the upcoming execution extensively adding to the sense of spectacle and controversy surrounding it and the according

Beard Laws (08:11.602)
to the Buffalo News, Kemmler, was intellectually disabled, correction officers, and this is the quote that was in there, said, don't let them experiment on me more than they ought to. So let's get into the morning of August 6th, 1890. William Kemmler was led to the electric chair at Auburn Prison. The execution was attended by doctors, officials, journalists, and probably some other people. Kemmler was strapped into his chair and the electrodes

were attached. When the switch was flipped, he was supposed to die instantly. However, things didn't go as planned, Yikes. After an initial 17 second administration of high voltage electric current, the doctor declares Kemmler dead. Then Kemmler, he just lets out a pretty deep groan. And actually witnesses reported reportedly screamed, turn on the current. Reports on the execution say that after two

Minutes the execution chamber then fills with the smell of burning flesh two of the witnesses fainted several others were overcome with severe attacks of nausea newspaper actually called the execution a historic bungle and disgusting sickening and inhumane Yikes imagine the doctors like yep, he's gone Turn it back on let's not maybe not funny, but

No, but I mean, let's not maybe take the guy out. Maybe just put him, let him live a couple more hours or tomorrow. Maybe let him recover and then do. don't know. I wasn't there. Not that I'm for or against it, but doesn't seem to make sense. Two minutes. You're supposed to go instantly. The botched execution horrified those present and actually led to a public outcry. It was clear that improvements were needed to the electric chair if it was going to be continually used.

So despite the gruesome nature of Gumbler's execution, the electric chair continued to be used and was improved over time. It actually became the standard method of execution in many states until lethal injection was actually introduced in the late 20th century. The Auburn prison chair had 56 victims just from 1890 to 1911. How? Yeah. Leon Kzlagszk. I don't know how to say that.

Beard Laws (10:38.554)
Z -O -L -G -O -S -Z. Record yourself trying to say that name and send it over to thebeardlaw's Instagram. We'll see how close you were. He was actually the slayer of President McKinley. He was one of the ones that ended up in the Auburn electric chair. And Chester Gillette, sounds like somebody with a razor company can't confirm. Same name, not a fan of razors, not a fan of Chester. He was actually the slayer of Grace Brown. Those were just a couple of notable people that were in the Auburn.

chair from 1890 to 1911. The execution of William Kemmler marked a turning point in the history of capital punishment. It raised ethical questions about the death penalty and the methods used to carry it out. Today, actually Kemmler's case serves as a grim reminder of the complexities and controversies surrounding the death penalty. It also underscores the intersection of technology, ethics, and law. Wild on. Yeah, we can't thank everybody enough for taking some time out of their busy

or maybe not busy day if you're listening to us. Shout out to our sources, wikipedia and the death penalty info .org. We got a little bit of a quote. You want to read the quote, Meg? Going to the electric chair will be the supreme thrill of my life. Albert Fish. Yeah, so Albert Fish may have heard of him, may have not heard of him, but this was something that Zach was very passionate about.

writing a story about and I started to write something up because I thought this is going to be an electric episode. Albert Fish was a disgusting individual, a very terrible, terrible person. I found a lot about it in it's going to be a wild episode. So it's either going to be next week or the week after, but spoiler alert, we got an article about Albert Fish coming your way, you're townians. So we can't thank you guys enough. Meg, I can't thank you enough. Let's head off.

Let's go back to Placid, get ourselves some Prison City. Prison City, if you're listening and want to be the potentially official beverage of the Beardlaw Studio, like the Yorktown Podcast, slide into those DMs. All right, that's all I got. You got anything else? No. OK. Well, seems like a good time. Hopefully you guys have a good rest of your week, day, month, year. That's all we got. We'll see you next week. Bye. OK, bye.