Old Sparky Electric Chair Which Executed 315 Death in 80 Years

Old Sparky Electric Chair Which Executed 315 Death in 80 Years

An electric chair called Old Sparky, a Ku Klux Klan robe and hood and a cage that mental patients used to be locked up in will go on display in a museum.

The exhibit at Ohio's Historical Centre entitled 'Controversy: Pieces You Don't Normally See' is spotlighting the artefacts from the more provocative side of the state's history.

Curator Sharon Dean said: 'History definitely isn't always pretty.


'The more we can stare some of things that aren't so pretty in the face, I think the more we can have honest, open discussions and start really working through some issues that, to date, have been fairly difficult.'

Old Sparky was used to execute 312 men and three women between 1897 and 1963.

The last time members of the general public could see the chair was when the old Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus offered tours, which ended in the early 1930s.

The prison sold postcards of the electric chair and souvenir pictures of the condemned men until it discontinued the tours.

The chair replaced hanging in 1897 as Ohio's method of execution.

According to the Columbus Dispatch, William Haas, 17, from Hamilton County, was the first to die in the hand-fashioned wood-and-steel chair. Donald Reinbolt, 29, of Columbus, was the last to be electrocuted, on March 15, 1963.

The electric chair was replaced by lethal injection as the state's sole means of execution in 2001. It was donated to the Ohio Historical Society in 2002 and has been in storage since.

Up close, the chair shows ominous signs of 66 years as the machinery of death.

The wooden arms, gripped by hands of the condemned, and the cushioned headrest are well-worn. But the leather bands that circled prisoners' wrists and metal ones that bound their ankles look like new.

Ms Dean said: 'If you look closely, it does show signs of wear on it, that a lot of people have, in fact, sat in it. But it's been maintained very well.'

Other pieces on display at the Columbus museum from April 1 until November 20 are a 150-year-old sheepskin condom found in the diary of a steamboat captain and an aluminium mitt used in the early 20th century to stop children from sucking their thumbs.

The wooden cage used to hold state mental patients is from the late 1800s.

Ms Dean said: 'It's a cage that was used for humans. The proper term was a crib-bed, and even at that time they found that it was a difficult restraint to use on people.'

Children under 18 will be barred from visiting the exhibit unless accompanied by an adult.

The items will be displayed with bare-bones identifying labels in a small room fitting not more than 20 people – to let the objects speak for themselves and to encourage visitors to talk about them, museum officials said.

Executive director of the Ohio Historical Society, Burt Logan, who oversees the historical centre, said: 'We think this is one of the attributes of this exhibit, to generate conversations about complex issues in Ohio's history.

"'History has a good side, which we often remember, and another side that we don't often see. We are not taking a stand of any type with this collection.

'These items represent part of the history of Ohio. It's purely an educational issue.'

The museum usually sticks to more traditional exhibits and this R-Rated one is expected to draw a large crowd.







Source: Dailymail

Plastic Surgery Deaths

Sometimes plastic surgery in the quest for the perfect body can have fatal effects.

With details of a recent cosmetic surgery-related death still unfolding, we recall other news-making fatalities that have been linked to the quest for the perfect body. Claudia Seye Aderotimi

Twenty-year-old Aderotimi, a Londoner visiting the States, died February 8 of complications stemming from an unlicensed cosmetic procedure performed in an unorthodox setting. Aderotimi was said to have paid more than $1,000 for the procedure. Police are searching for a suspect whose background is musical, not medical.

Lidvian Zelaya

At the end of December 2010, 35-year-old Zelaya died of cardiac arrest after checking in for two procedures at a Southern Florida facility. The exact cause of death is still unknown.

Wang Bei

Chinese singer Wang Bei, 24, suffered respiratory and circulatory failure in November 2010 after she reportedly sought a facial enhancement. She came into the public eye as a contestant of an American Idol-style show. The exact cause of death is swamped in rumors.

Solange Magnano

In 2009, the former South American beauty queen, modeling agency head and mother died of a pulmonary embolism at age 37. Her death was linked to gluteoplasty.

Rohie Kah-Orukotan

This 37-year-old mother of three — who was no stranger to medical practice — went to a Florida facility for liposuction in 2009. There, she experienced seizures and was rushed to a hospital, with disastrous results.

Maritess Lopez

Lopez died at age 36 after obtaining a "mommy makeover" in 2008. Her Virginia Beach doctor released her an hour after the procedure, but she began experiencing adverse side effects at home.

Donda West

The death of this scholar and mother of a hip-hop star made huge headlines in 2007. The 58-year-old had gone to a high profile surgeon to have a tummy tuck and breast reduction and died of a heart attack the next day. Though the procedure may have played a role in her death, the coroner ruled out wrongdoing.

Olga Arroyo

In 2007, 41-year-old Arroyo, a New Jersey police officer, underwent plastic surgery in a private home at the hands of an unlicensed Colombian native. She died on the scene from a fatal injection.

Kathleen Kelly Cregan

In 2005, Cregan secretly traveled from her home abroad, with the intent of surprising her husband with a new look given by a New York City doctor. (How did she hear of him?) She went into cardiac arrest hours after the procedure and died at age 42.

Olivia Goldsmith

The best-selling author of this book-turned-film checked into a Manhattan clinic in 2004. Goldsmith wanted a chin-tuck — one of many procedures she'd sought from the same doctor — but went into a coma shortly after the surgery began and died several days later at age 54.

Susan Malitz

In 2004, 56-year-old Malitz checked into a scandal-plagued New York hospital to undergo a routine facelift from a top doctor. As the Connecticut woman was being prepped for surgery, she went into cardiac arrest and died shortly thereafter.

Julie Rubenzer

Rubenzer, 38, went to a Florida-based doctor in search of a breast augmentation in 2003. There were many red flags, including the doctor's training, certification and lack of medical privileges. The patient stopped breathing, went into cardiac arrest, never regained consciousness and was taken to her hometown, where she died three months later.