Who makes electric chairs and other equipment for executions?
Dear Cecil:It pains me to see that my adopted state of Wisconsin is about to turn its back on 150 years of sanity and bring back the death penalty. My question is, supposing we elect not to go the wimpy route of killing off our capital offenders via lethal injection but instead fry ’em or gas ’em in a more manly manner, where would we get the equipment? Is there an “Old Sparky Electric Chair Manufacturing Co.” or a “Green Glow Gas Chamber Company”? — Scott Custis, Madison, Wisconsin Cecil replies: Interesting question, bizarre answer–and one that shows you the kind of people you deal with when you get back into the execution business. The electric chairs and such of generations past were largely homemade affairs, and it showed–often you could obtain equally humane results by setting the guy on fire. After a few grisly incidents following the resumption of executions, prison wardens began looking around for somebody who knew what he was doing. They found what they wanted (they thought
