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Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr.
- PG-13
- Year:
- 1999
- 91 min
- 155 Views
[ Fred Leuchter,Jr.]
I became involved...
in the manufacture
of execution equipment...
because I was concerned
with the deplorable condition...
of the hardware that's in
most of the states'prisons,
which generally results
in torture...
prior to death.
I was asked by a state...
to look at
their electric chair.
I was surprised
at the condition
of the equipment...
and I indicated to them
what changes should be made...
to bring the equipment
up to the point of doing
a humane execution.
Beyond making
recommendations for changes,
I sat down, on my own time
and at my own expense,
and made a new design
and new equipment...
available to the states...
utilizing electrocution...
they would have to deal with...
if they hired
an engineering firm
The equipment
is all standardized,
it all meets the current
electrical requirements
for electrocution...
and the pricing is such...
that it's similar
to what you'd pay for
an off-the-shelf item,
even though it's made up.
They essentially pay
for the parts, the labor
and the installation,
and a 20-percent markup,
which is more than fair.
We are testing
the electrocution system...
here at
This is connected to
the execution system...
in place of
the electric chair,
and the system thinks
that this is a human body.
It consists of a series
of heavy-duty resistors...
cooled by four fans.
I will now switch on
the fans...
[ Click, Fans Humming ]
and begin
the cooling process.
We then proceed
to the power supply.
We turn on
the main circuit breaker.
You can see the voltage has
increased to 2,640 volts.
We begin the test
at the control console...
for the electric chair.
We turn the fail-safe system on
to operation.
Power up.
Computer on.
And then I push the button
for operation.
The human body
is not easy to destroy.
It's not easy to take a life
humanely and painlessly,
without doing
a great deal of damage
to the individual's body.
Excess current
cooks the tissue.
There have been occasions...
where a great amount
of current has been applied...
and the meat will come off
the executee's body like meat
coming off a cooked chicken.
The execution
must be conducted
in two jolts.
In 1/240th part of a second...
the first jolt disrupts
or destroys the individual's
central nervous system.
Current is then applied...
for a time
approaching one minute.
The adrenaline
into the bloodstream.
The second jolt
now seizes the pacemaker
a second time.
There's now no adrenaline left
to restart the pacemaker.
The person is dead.
If the voltage does not exceed
throughout the execution,
the individual's pacemaker
is not permanently seized.
In some 20, 30 minutes later
the individual's heart
restarts itself on its own...
and the person
is now alive again.
They would have to call
all the witnesses back,
strap the vegetable
back into the chair...
and reelectrocute him.
There's no difference
in a life support system
and an execution system.
Uh, the system has to
function flawlessly...
for the time period
that it's operating.
With a life support system,
if it doesn't function,
the person dies.
With an execution system,
if it doesn't
function flawlessly,
the person lives,
but he doesn't live
as a human being.
He lives as an injured,
brain-dead vegetable,
which is probably far worse
than being executed.
My father worked
in the Massachusetts
correctional system.
He was a superintendent
of transportation
for many years,
first at the old state prison
in Charlestown,
and then at the new prison
in Walpole,
which has now since been
renamed Cedar Junction.
As many youngsters do,
I went to work
with my father.
I'd been
accompanying him to work
since I was four years old.
I visited all of the cell areas,
including the death house area.
I was in the same room that
people like Sacco and Vanzetti
were executed in.
from the inmates that
normally would be illegal...
but have proved
very useful to me
in my later life,
things like picking locks
I learned all kinds
of strange things
as a youngster.
I came into
the execution field...
from a back-door
standpoint,
because I was very concerned
about the humanitarian aspects
of death by torture,
similar to what happened
in the state of Florida
two years ago...
with Mr.Jesse Tafero,
where they actually
set the man's head on fire.
in the state of New York,
and the individual
lay writhing on the floor
of the death chamber...
crying for 35 or 40 minutes
while the carpenters
repaired the chair.
They burnt
the transformer up.
Fortunately,
due to the quick thinking
of the prison electrician,
they had some cable,
they ran some wires
over the prison wall...
and tapped into
without the consent
of the power company, but
there was no objection later.
They had one execution...
where the transformer
caught on fire and blew up,
and it occurred
in such a sequence...
that all it did was knock
the individual unconscious.
He came out of it with
no problem.
Six months later they repaired
the electric chair...
and they did successfully
execute him.
But, I mean,
he was very lucky.
He was hit with
a full jolt of electricity,
the equipment blew up,
burned up...
and he walked away from it
without any damage,
not even a burn.
One by one,
I determined that this state's
equipment was not functional,
this state's equipment
was not functional.
Then suddenly one day I said,
"None of the equipment
is functional."
Many of the electric chairs
were built by inmates
and electricians...
who had no idea
of what they were building.
They took a picture of another
state's electric chair and made
something that looked like it.
Tennessee contacted me...
with the construction
of their new prison.
I was asked to
inspect the equipment
at the old facility...
and make a determination
of what could be salvaged.
The only consideration was
that they wanted to maintain
the electric chair,
which they've had in place
since 1898.
The reasoning being
that the wood
from the electric chair...
not only had the tradition
of all of their
electrocution executions,
but it also formerly served
as the wood of their gallows.
The chair itself...
was much smaller
than one would expect.
It looked more like it was made
to accommodate a youngster...
or a woman.
So, we essentially
made the chair wider,
we made the chair higher.
We supplied them with
a completely new power supply...
so there's
no excessive cooking.
And then finally,
because we were unable to match
the old wood with the new oak,
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