What were some of the most common fears of the men waiting to die?
The main fear was, “Is it going to hurt?” The only pain—if you want to call it pain—was the insertion of the needles. But I also had to clear up some misconceptions. For instance, they heard that Texas had a machine and sometimes the machine didn’t work; that was out of a book. Some had heard rumors that if your family didn’t pick up your body they just put it in the creek in the back. Did the condemned often confess their crimes? Quite often. One of the procedures we developed is that at ten o’clock I would explain to them the whole procedure. I explained to them the process of the tie-down team, what they would do, and the insertion of the needles. They usually had a lot of questions. Since they couldn’t have any visitors after five o’clock I was about the only one they had to talk to. So from ten o’clock to midnight they really opened up. They would talk about almost anything. Did anything ever happen in the Death House that really surprised you? There was one fellow who wanted to s
