Show HARRIS IS I ELECTROrUT D The Wife Poisoner Executed at Sing Sing Prison HE MEETS DEATH CALMLY I His Innocence o the Crime He Proclaims Pro-claims to the Last The Execution Said to Have Been a Very Successful One and Death Was Instantaneous In-stantaneous Ho flakes a Short Address SING SING X Y May 8 Carlyle Harris Har-ris the young medical student whose trial and conviction in New Ycrk city for poisoning Helen Potts t whom he had been secretly married attracted so much alteration was electrocuted in prison here today Not since the first execution by this method when four men Slocum Smiler Jugive and Wood passed beneath the deadly electrodes has such interest been displayed here Throngs of people gathered on the hillside overlooking the gray prison walls though the only thing they could hope to ste in connection with the execution was a display of the black flag above the tower after he had been officially pronounced dead This morbid curiosity is partly accounted for by the fact that he was the first man of any intelligence to die in an electric chair partly to the wide publicity pub-licity given to the case in the newspapers and party to a question of the mans guilt though as to the last the chief element ele-ment of doubt lay in Harris steady assertion as-sertion of Innocence Every possible effort ef-fort was made to secure a reversal of the sentence and that failing to induce Governor Flower to mitigate the punish L I meni out wisnout avail Contrary to the usual custom the warden war-den did not read the death warrant t the condemned at midnight but Harris had been told when the execution would take place He retired early last night showing show-ing more evidences of excitement than usual his heretofore iron nerves giving evidence of the strain in the unusual quantity of cigarettes that he smoked He slept little during the night rose early this morning 1 looked over the eary manuscripts he had prepared to be given to the press after death He seemed cooler this morning and ate alight a-light breakfast a 8 oclock At 9 oclock medical witnesses began to arrive and half an hour later fires were started under the boilers which operate the engine which runs the dynamo furnishing the deadly agent of execution His mother and brother had already taken final leave of him but occupied a room in a neighboring hotel from the window of which the black flag could be seen when hoisted as the signal that his spirit had taken flight The vigil was a sorrowful one as with straining eyes they looked away toward the staff on which the somber emblem would float when the condemned man passed from earth The death warrant was read at 830 but the reading had no visible effect on the condemned man Half an hour later the prison chaplainspent a hour with him then one of the medical examiners visited him and found him showing some signs of nervousness but nothing more Harris did not ask for morphine or any stimulant but wanted a couple of oranges which were given him He was shaved and his hair cut at 1030 a m and he put on a new suit of clothes After 1215 witnesses were conducted to the execution chamber and the death flag placed in position to hoist The witnesses wit-nesses numbered twentyseven consisting consist-ing of seven physicians ten newspapermen newspaper-men ten state officials friends of the warden Arriving in the execution chamber the witnesses took seats in a chalb se semicircle around tne aeatn cnamoer and everything being in readiness two keepers brought Harris into the chamber accompanied by the chaplain He looked pale as he entered the room paused an instant on the threshold and calmly surveyed the assembled witnesses One of the keepers indicated the chair to him and without even a dance curiosity at the deathdealing machine he stepped forward and took his seat As he did so he requested permission to speak This was accorded him and he said speaking as i every word cost him great effort 1 5 I have no further reservation to make I desire to say that I am absolutely innocent in-nocent Then he settled back in the chair and the electrodes were quickly attached the signal was given the lever clicked sharply the form of the condemned man stiffened till the straps creaked while 1760 volts passed through his frame At the end of two seconds the current was reduced to 150 volts which was continued fiftyfour seconds longer when Harris was pronounced dead As the current was fully shut off the body dropped back limp Examination showed no signs of life and it was evident that death was instantaneous The execution was most successful Relatives will take the body away this afternoon There was a very impressive scene at the Ambler house in the afternoon when Mrs Harris saw the reporters This remarkable re-markable woman stood calm and passive facing them with dry eyes and in a firm voice said elt has been said that Carlyle Harris is guilty because he shed no tears when Helen Potts died I shed no tears and God knows I loved Carlyle Harris My boy is innocent You men who saw him die know he went to the chair an innocent inno-cent man With his last word he declared de-clared his innocence and yet he has been killed He has been judicially murdered His last statemant was to be given to men me-n < Bonn as ho was dead and I have not re i it yet I dont think I shall ever see it at least not as my boy wrote it I was my boys last wish that it be given out today but I am powerless to carry it c out Warden Durston when asked for Carlyle Car-lyle Harris statement which it is understood under-stood he prepared for the press and which Durston promised to turn over to Mrs Harris this afternoon said he thought it best to submit it to the superintendent superin-tendent of prisons first and he will mail it to that official this evening At 3 oclock Undertaker Kipp drove up to the prison He procured the prison physicians certificate of the cause of Harris death and then drove into the prison grounds In the wagon was a highly polished oak casket which was carried into the death chamber where the body of Harris dressed in the dark suit of prisonmade goods reposed upon a table The body was placed in the casket The undertaker refused to disclose the plans for the disposition of the body The silver plate upon the cover of the casket contained this inscription 1 OARYLE W HARRIS Murdered May S 1893 Aged 23 years 7 months 15 days We would not i we had known |