Arthur Gooch (criminal)

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Arthur Gooch (born 1909-1910, died June 19, 1936[1]) was an American criminal, who is notable for being one of two people ever executed under the federal Lindbergh kidnapping law, and the only one in whose crime nobody was killed.

Gooch was the only person sentenced to death and executed by the federal government of the United States[2] for a kidnapping in which the victim(s) were unharmed. Gooch participated in kidnapping two policemen in Texas and released them in Oklahoma.[3] In contrast Victor Feguer, the last federal inmate executed before 2001 (1963 in Iowa) was charged for kidnapping, but his victim died. President Kennedy declined to commute the sentence.[4]

Although the electric chair was the only method of execution in Oklahoma at this time, Gooch was executed by hanging. Like Gooch, another federal inmate James Alderman, executed in Florida on August 17, 1929, was also hanged, despite the fact that Florida state law authorized electrocution as a sole method.[5]

The sentence was carried out by Oklahoma's state executioner, Rich Owens. According to the witnesses Gooch's hanging was botched and his death lasted 15 minutes. Many blamed Owens for this failure, as this was the only hanging he ever performed and the first hanging in Oklahoma since 1911.[6]

His last words were reported to have been, "It's kind of funny—dying. I think I know what it will be like. I'll be standing there, and all of a sudden everything will be black, then there'll be a light again. There's got to be a light again—there's got to be."[7]

Gooch was 26 years old at time of his execution.[1]

Notes and references[]

  1. ^ a b "Oklahoma Executions". Archived from the original on March 29, 2008. Retrieved April 18, 2008.
  2. ^ "Federal Executions 1927-2003". Death Penalty Information Center. Archived from the original on April 12, 2008. Retrieved March 9, 2008.
  3. ^ "The Federal Death Penalty". Death Row Speaks. Archived from the original on March 8, 2005. Retrieved July 7, 2021.
  4. ^ "Business, Pleasure & Politics". Time. June 29, 1936. Archived from the original on December 15, 2008. Retrieved August 9, 2008.
  5. ^ "340 Federal, 271 Territorial and 40 Indian Tribunal Executions 1790 to 1963". Archived from the original on April 13, 2003. Retrieved February 23, 2012.
  6. ^ Zizzo, David (August 17, 2003). "Executioner's Song". The Oklahoman.
  7. ^ Nelson, Lane & Foster, Burk (2001). "Any Last Words?". Death Watch: A Death Penalty Anthology. Prentice Hall. pp. 283–296. Archived from the original on March 16, 2008 – via BurkFoster.com.


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