Edward Haight, 16, stands in between two police officers a day after his arrest in Connecticut for kidnapping, raping, torturing, and murdering two sisters, ages 7 and 8, in a small town in New York in 1942. Haight would be the youngest person to die in the state’s electric chair [960 x 844].

[Murders of Helen and Margaret Lynch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Helen_and_Margaret_Lynch)

Sixteen is obviously old enough to know better. Edward Haight was only five days away from his 17th birthday at the time of the murders anyway. That said, it was evidently only days before his execution in 1943 that he realized the severity of what he had done.

>A 17-year-old boy, author of one of the most heinous crimes on record, stood last night on the brink of death and sighed, “I was a fool.” The boy: Edward Haight. The scene: Sing Sing’s death house. The crime: Abduction, rape, torture and murder of two little Westchester sisters, Margaret Lynch, 8, and Helen, 7. It happened last Sept. 14. Haight kidnapped the sisters in a stolen station wagon near their home in Bedford Village. After raping and torturing them he tossed Margaret’s body in Beaver Dam Creek and Helen’s in Kensico Reservoir.
>
>”I don’t know why I did what I did,” the boy mused as the hour of his execution, scheduled for 11 P. M., drew nearer. “I guess this is my last day all right, and I’m only 17.” Only the possibility of a last-minute commutation by Gov. Dewey stood between Haight and the penalty a Westchester jury prescribed for him. His electrocution would make him the youngest person ever punished by death in New York State. Haight mumbled, “I don’t think anybody is going to do anything for me.”