Toni Jo Henry was born Annie Beatrice McQuiston on January 3rd, 1916, near Shreveport, Louisiana, the third of five children. She became the only woman to receive the electric chair in Louisiana when she was executed on November 28th, 1942, for the brutal murder of Joseph P. Calloway on St. Valentine’s Day, February 14th, 1940. … Read more
Background and first murder Jimmy Lee Gray was born in 1949 in Whittier, California. At the age of 18, Jimmy murdered hisgirlfriend Elda Louise Prince. 16 year old Elda was a sophomore at Parker High School in Parker, Arizona, where Jimmy was also a student and a school friend of Elda’s brother, 18 year old … Read more
Execution Details On Tuesday, April 21, 1992, 39-year-old Robert Alton Harris was put to death in the gas chamber at San Quentin Prison in California’s first execution in 25 years. He had been sentenced to die for the particularly brutal killing of two teenage boys in 1978, whose car he had hijacked for use in … Read more
Early Life and Troubled Childhood Barbara Graham was born in 1923 in Oakland, California. She had a difficult and miserable childhood (a familiar story?). Her mother was sent to a reformatory when Barbara was only two years old, so she was raised by neighbors and received little education. Teenage Years and Early Adulthood As a … Read more
Strangely, the last two women to be publicly hanged in Britain both died in front of Maidstone Gaol some sixteen months apart, each for the murder of a child. Background and Domestic Situation Twenty nine year old Ann Lawrence was separated from her husband, Stephen, by whom she had a four year old son, Jeremiah, … Read more
