William Kemmler
| William Kemmler | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
May 9, 1860 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Died | August 6, 1890 (aged 30) Auburn Prison in Auburn, New York |
| Occupation | Produce merchant |
| Criminal penalty | Death by electrocution |
| Criminal status | Executed |
| Spouse(s) | Tillie Ziegler (common law wife) |
| Conviction(s) | Murder |
William Francis Kemmler (May 9, 1860 – August 6, 1890) of Buffalo, New York, was a convicted murderer and the first person in the world to be legally executed using an electric chair.
William Kemmler was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Both of his parents were immigrants from Germany and both of them were alcoholics. After dropping out of school at age 10, having learned neither how to read nor write, Kemmler worked in his father's butcher shop. His father died from an infection that he received after a drunken brawl and his mother died from complications of alcoholism. After his parents died, he went into the peddling business and earned enough money to buy a horse and cart, although at this point he was becoming a heavy drinker. In one episode involving him and his friends after a series of drunken binges, he said he could jump his horse and cart over an eight-foot fence with the cart attached to the horse. The attempt was a failure, and his cart and goods destroyed in the incident. He was known to friends as "Philadelphia Billy" due to his drinking binges that were very well known around the saloons in his Buffalo neighborhood. Kemmler was reportedly slender, with dark brown hair. He spoke both English and German.
Kemmler was accused of the March 29, 1889 murder of Matilda "Tillie" Ziegler, his common-law wife, who had been killed with a hatchet. He was tried and convicted of murder on May 10, 1889. On May 13 he was sentenced to death. As of January first of that year New York had instituted death by electrocution, the first such law ever. Kemmler's sentence was to be carried out at New York's Auburn Prison via the new electric chair, a device invented in 1881 by Buffalo, New York dentist Alfred Southwick which, after nine years of development and legislation, was ready for use. Kemmler's lawyers appealed, arguing that electrocution was cruel and unusual punishment.
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