> Duffy felt the death penalty was wrong. He said it was applied unfairly to only a fraction of murderers, and said it did not deter many killers. For evidence he offered Alfred Wells.
> While serving a burglary term at San Quentin, Wells helped install the new gas chamber. He explained its workings to the other inmates, vowing, “That’s the closest I ever want to come to the gas chamber.”
> After he was paroled, Wells got into trouble again. When his family objected to an affair he was having with his half-sister, Violet, he killed his half-brother, the brother’s wife and another woman in San Bernardino.
> Short, deformed, slender and slowed by a limp, Wells took off and became in 1941 the target of the biggest manhunt in Southern California to that time. A posse of more than 1,000 men scoured the desert between San Bernardino and Las Vegas for the man headlines called the notorious “Hunchback Killer.”
> One Mother’s Day, the warden’s wife, Gladys, gave an inspirational talk over the Gray Network, the prison radio system. She received a letter from Wells and they began a regular correspondence. Wells calmed down and began Bible classes.
> Just before his death in the gas chamber he installed, Wells wrote Mrs. Duffy a final time.
> “I have really enjoyed all your fine letters, but there is nothing more you can do for me.”
3 Comments
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-03-28-mn-229-story.html
> Author: Roderick (1990)
> Duffy felt the death penalty was wrong. He said it was applied unfairly to only a fraction of murderers, and said it did not deter many killers. For evidence he offered Alfred Wells.
> While serving a burglary term at San Quentin, Wells helped install the new gas chamber. He explained its workings to the other inmates, vowing, “That’s the closest I ever want to come to the gas chamber.”
> After he was paroled, Wells got into trouble again. When his family objected to an affair he was having with his half-sister, Violet, he killed his half-brother, the brother’s wife and another woman in San Bernardino.
> Short, deformed, slender and slowed by a limp, Wells took off and became in 1941 the target of the biggest manhunt in Southern California to that time. A posse of more than 1,000 men scoured the desert between San Bernardino and Las Vegas for the man headlines called the notorious “Hunchback Killer.”
> One Mother’s Day, the warden’s wife, Gladys, gave an inspirational talk over the Gray Network, the prison radio system. She received a letter from Wells and they began a regular correspondence. Wells calmed down and began Bible classes.
> Just before his death in the gas chamber he installed, Wells wrote Mrs. Duffy a final time.
> “I have really enjoyed all your fine letters, but there is nothing more you can do for me.”
Guy who invented brass bull:
“First time?”
Guy who invented brass bull:
“You too?”