Executed Women of 20th and 21st Centuries

By (author) L. Kay Gillespie

Publication date:

16 July 2009

Length of book:

166 pages

Publisher

UPA

ISBN-13: 9780761845669

BOOK DESCRIPTION
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Executed Women of the 20th and 21st Centuries provides a look into the lives, crimes, and executions of women during the 20th and 21st centuries. Rather than dealing with these women as numbers and statistics, this book presents them as human beings. Each of these women had lives, histories, and families. The purpose is not to condone their actions, but to suggest that those we executed are, in fact, humans—rather than monsters, as they are often portrayed.

Chapter 1 Acknowledgements
Chapter 2 Foreword
Chapter 3 Preface to Revised Edition
Chapter 4 Prologue
Chapter 5 Introduction: Lethal Injection - The Ultimate High
Chapter 6 North Carolina: Velma Barfield - "When I go...it's my gateway to Heaven."; Bessie Mae Williams - "God has answered my prayers, I'm ready now."; Rosanna Phillips - "Deliver me from this gas chamber. I don't want no part of it."
Chapter 7 Part One: Hanging - "[D]on't hang me high...for decency's sake."
Chapter 8 Arizona: Eva Dugan - "I don't know where I'm going but I'm on my way."
Chapter 9 Vermont: Mary Rogers - "Moral Idiot"
Chapter 10 Louisiana: Ada LeBoeuf - "Sweet Pirogueing Mama"; Julia Moore
Chapter 11 Delaware: May Carey - "My way is clear; I have nothing else to say."
Chapter 12 Mississippi: Mary Holmes - "Torch Murderer"
Chapter 13 Comparison Case: Winnie Ruth Judd - "Trunk Slayer"
Chapter 14 Part Two: The Electric Chair - "This is a step forward in the cause of humanity."
Chapter 15 New York: Mary Farmer - "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, have mercy on my soul."; Ruth Snyder - "If there is a peniten in this world, I am that."; Anna Antonio - "I am not afraid to die. I have nothing on my conscience."; Eva Coo - "I wish to God the men I know
Chapter 16 Alabama: Selina Gilmore - "I'm going home where the angels dwell."; Earle Dennison - "God has forgiven me for all I have done."; Rhonda Belle Martin - "I want my body...given to some scientific institution..."
Chapter 17 Ohio: Anna Marie Hahn - "[D]on't do this to me...can't you think of my baby?"; Blanche Dean - "[He] wanted a housekeeper and I wanted a home."; Betty Butler - "My work is done."
Chapter 18 Pennsylvania: Irene Schroeder - "I am going to die...but I am not afraid."; Corrine Sykes
Chapter 19 South Carolina: Sue Logue - "I am ready to go."; Rose Marie Stinette - "Root Doctor"
Chapter 20 Virginia: Virginia Christian - "I'm right much worried."
Chapter 21 Illinois: Marie Porter - "I hold no malice towards anyone."
Chapter 22 Louisiana: Toni Jo Henry - "The victim doesn't return to haunt me. I never think of him."
Chapter 23 Mississippi: Mildred Johnson
Chapter 24 Georgia: Lena Baker
Chapter 25 Comparison Cases: Effie Jowers - "Hammer Slayer" and Nannie Hazel Doss - "Arsenic Annie"
Chapter 26 Part Three: The Gas Chamber - "How in the hell would you know?"
Chapter 27 California: Juanita Spinelli - "My blood will burn holes in [your] bodies."; Loiuse Peete - "There will be no screaming or hysterics. I am not built that way."; Barbara Graham - "I am paying for a life of little sins."; Elizabeth Duncan - "I am innocent.
Chapter 28 Comparison Case: Dr. Alice Wynekoop
Chapter 29 Part Four: Federal Executions of Women
Chapter 30 Mary Surratt - "If I had two lives to give, I'd give one gladly to save Mrs. Surratt."
Chapter 31 Ethel Rosenberg - "Always remember that we were innocent and could not wrong our conscience."
Chapter 32 Bonnie Brown Heady - "I'd rather die than be poor."
Chapter 33 Comparison Cases: Judith Coplon - "The Petticoat Spy" and Mildred Gillars - "Axis Sally"
Chapter 34 Part Five: The Last Two of the 20th Century
Chapter 35 Karla Faye Tucker - "Here she comes baby doll, she's all yours."
Chapter 36 Judi Buenoano - "Via con dios"
Chapter 37 Comparison Case: Guineveve Garcia, "Stay out of my case. Stay out of my life."
Chapter 38 Part Six: The New Century
Chapter 39 Executions of Women: 20th and 21st Centuries
Chapter 40 Truth About Trunk Murders Dies with Winnie Ruth Judd
Chapter 41 Murderous Driver Dies on Nevada's Death Row
Chapter 42 Betty Lou Beets (Texas Black Widow) - "My time is running and the State of Texas will pick up where my husband left off..."
Chapter 43 Christina Riggs - "Now I can be with my babies as I always intended."
Chapter 44 Wanda Jean Allen - "I am the type of person I will hunt someone down I love and kill them."
Chapter 45 Marilyn Kay Plantz - "She told us to burn him."
Chapter 46 Lois Nadean Smith - "I won't have to hear her name anymore."
Chapter 47 Lynda Lyon-Sibley [Block] - "Give me liberty or give me death."
Chapter 48 Aileen Carol Wuornos (Damsel of Death) - "If I am damned, who is forgiven?"
Chapter 49 Frances Elaine Newton - "I know I did not murder my kids and my family."
Chapter 50 Comparison Case: Tiffany Hall - "I will never get out."
Chapter 51 Part Seven: Clemencies and Commutations
Chapter 52 Part Eight: What Must a Woman Do to Be Executed?
Chapter 53 Conclusion: Mothers, Their Children, and Their Crimes; Mothers While on Death Row; Mothers to the End