Aurora Police Chief Spencer Garrett lights a cigarette for spree killers George York, 18, and James Latham, 19, before their extradition to Kansas. The two U.S. Army privates went AWOL and killed 7 people since they didn’t want to share their barracks with black troops (Colorado, 1961) [800 x 640].
by lightiggy
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George York and James Latham expressed no remorse nor any illusions whatsoever about the punishment they would face. As far as their legal prospects went, the only real question was how they would be dying. Their three options were death by legal gas in Colorado, death by electrocution in Florida, Illinois, and Tennessee, and death by hanging in Kansas. The two young men said they would prefer to be electrocuted in Florida. They were ultimately tried in Kansas, where they were both hanged in 1965.
>York rambled at length to a reporter in a jail interview at Aurora Thursday night. Fingering a fuzzy beard after a dinner of cheeseburgers and a milkshake, he mused: “I’m kinda looking forward to hanging. That’s what they do in Kansas, ain’t it? I always kinda wanted to know what it’s like on the other side, and now I’ll get to see. We’ll be able to sit over there and laugh at the rest of your guys trying to figure out what’s going to happen. Y’see, we’ll already know.”
Ironically, all but one of the victims of the two men were white. They were extremely nihilistic and being told to share their barracks with black soldiers was evidently just the last straw.
>A United Press journalist in Utah called York and Latham “two young, bitter, world-hating Southern boys.” The teenagers said they’d been doing their victims favors, “putting them out of this world of misery.”
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>The Sandy-haired youth, like Latham wearing the same black T-shirt and pants combination they wore when arrested, was intense and moody during the interview. Once he nearly shouted: “You can’t blame us for what he did and you can’t blame our parents. It’s the whole damn world’s fault. Everyone believes in the idea of one man stomping another for his own gain, that’s the problem.”
Last people hanged in the state of Kansas, in Leavenworth — and together — in 1965 on the same gallows used for decades, to include the In Cold Blood killers Richard Eugene Hickock and Perry Edward Smith.
A replica exists in Leavenworth as of earlier this year:
[https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article306305041.html](https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article306305041.html)
I’m curious what sort of influences in their lives brought them to that ultimate end. It’s interesting that now we can point to the obvious plethora of social media personalities and communities. I don’t know enough about sociology or psychology to understand it but just something I was wondering when i read this.