It was a calm, beautiful morning as the warden of San Quentin walked into his office on that late spring morning in 1979. His task at hand that morning was not as pleasant as the morning had been. He had to walk the first woman to be executed in the gas chamber in over ten years. He opened his desk drawer and removed a wristwatch which he used to replace the one he was already wearing. He checked the watch with the clock on the wall of his office and then made his way to death row. As he entered the ante room near the gas chamber, he checked his watch again with the clock beside the gas chamber.
“Morning Warden,” one of the guards said as passed by.
“Is everything ready?”
“It’s ready. We’re going to give the chamber one last smoke test to be sure,” the guard said as he removed a pack of cigarettes from his shirt pocket and a lighter from his left front pants pocket.
“Good idea, we still have almost two hours. Did the nurse report any problems with her last night?”
“No, she was quiet.”
“I’m going to check on her while you do the final smoke test.”
“See you in a few,” the guard said as he stepped in the chamber and stood between the two chairs as another guard shut the steel door and sealed. He put his cigarette in his mouth and lite it. He took a puff and then exhaled the smoke. He watched as the smoke hung in the air near him and didn’t flow up, down, or sideways. He waved his hand to the guard who had shut the door for him to open it. As he stepped out of the chamber her said, “She’s ready to go, she’s airtight.”
The warden had walked through a heavy steel door that separate the death watch cell from the anteroom and the gas chamber. The nurse who was sitting just outside the cell looked up and said, “Good morning.”
“Good morning,” he replied and then looked in the cell at the tall brunette woman in her late 30’s, with short hair who was sitting on the edge of the cot. “How are you holding up Jeanette?”
She looked up at him, “I’m doing ok, I just want to get this over with. How much longer do I have?”
“An hour and forty-five minutes. Do you need the Chaplin?”
“Not now. He was here all morning; I want to be alone for now. I just want him to walk with me.” She picked up a small stack of letters and handed them through the bars. “I need these delivered, one is to my husband, telling him I’m sorry I used him. I just married him to get access to the bank he worked for. I married a poor guy who had back luck with women just to use him. Do you know what? He still loves me and has me a grand funeral arranged. He even had the dress I’m going to die in delivered, it’s tailored made, imagine that. I’m going to the gas chamber looking like I stepped out of the Sears catalog.” She looked down at her feet that were covered in slippers. “I wasn’t planning for anyone to get killed in the robbery, but two armored truck guards did. My two henchmen were shot by the cops and they traced the whole thing back to me. So much for my desired upper-class lifestyle I dreamed of. I’m just glad it’s going to be the gas chamber instead of the chair, I couldn’t have handled that. Thank God for small miracles.”
“Is there anything else I can do for you?”
“Just don’t let them give me all those last-minute appeals like they did that poor woman a few years ago. She got a raw deal if anyone ever did.”
He looked down at the nurse, “Help her get dressed in one hour and a half. The doctor will be in at nine-fifteen.”
“Will do,” the nurse quietly answered as the warden went back to the anteroom. She then looked into the cell at Jeanette, “Are you sure you don’t want anything to eat?”
“No, I couldn’t hold it down. I’m not going to lie and say I’m not scared; my stomach is twisted in knots. It’s the waiting that’s the worst. I can’t wait to start walking my last mile even though it will only be a bout fifteen feet. Are they going to let me wear my pantyhose or do I have to go barefoot?”
“They said you can wear a pair od stockings. I brought you a pair.”
“Can I get dressed?”
The nurse looked at her watch and nodded.
Jeanette changed into her own clothing under the careful eye of the nurse. As she finished buttoning her print dress and looked in the mirror and touched up her make up before stepping into her high heeled strappy dress sandals. She looked at the nurse, “How do I look?”
“Nice, you look real nice.”
Jeanette took a deep breath, “How much longer do I have left?”
The nurse looked at her watch, “a half hour.”
Jeanette started pacing back and forth in the cell. The clicking of her heels on the concrete floor echoed with each step she took. She looked up and prayed to herself, “I hope you can find a place for a nasty woman like me up there. I deserve what I am about to go through, please let the gas chamber cleanse my soul.”
She stopped and turned toward the door as a female guard and the doctor appeared. The guard opened the door and the doctor entered with the nurse following him into the cell.
The doctor removed the end of a stethoscope from the pocket of his jacket and attached a long tube to it. He then pulled a roll of surgical tape from his other pocket. “Jeanette, I need you to unbutton your dress for a minute.”
Jeanette undid the top buttons, allowing the doctor to locate her heart and tape the stethoscope over it. “All done, you can button your dress back,” the doctor said as he held the free end of the tube as Jeanette fastened the buttons around it. “I’m finished here,” he said and then left the cell.
“Take off your shoes,” the female guard said.
“So, that’s not just in the movies,” Jeanette said as she bent over and unfastened the straps around her ankles and stepped out of her shoes. “I saw Susan Hayward in I Want to Live and I thought this part was all Hollywood.”
“No, it’s real,” the guard said as she reached down and picked up Jeanette’s shoes and handed them to the nurse as guards placed runner rugs on the floor. “No hard objects to trap gas. Shoes have always been a problem that’s why you can’t wear them.”
“That’s real too,” Jeanette said as she watched the guards straighten the rugs.
“Step on the rug,” the guard said as she pointed at the floor and the part of the rug that protruded into the cell.
Jeanette took one step and placed her slender high arched feet on the rug. She looked at the nurse and held her arms open. She gave the nurse a hug and said, “Thank you and goodbye.” She then turned her eyes toward the door beside the cell as it swung open and the warden appeared before the open cell door.
“Jeanette, it’s time,” he said.
Jeanette nodded her head and followed the rug out her cell and turned to her right, following it through an open door and into the anteroom where she saw the gas chamber only a few feet away. The huge door was open wide as she approached the octagon shaped, metal room with two chairs facing the door. As she reached the chamber she had to step up and over the doorway and then she was guided to Chair B which was left of the door. The guards turned her around and seated her in the chair. Soon, there were a total of ten straps securing Jeanette’s body to the metal chair.
She looked straight ahead as the door made it’s loud creaking sound as it was shut and sealed. She then looked up at the light above her as she heard the acid fill the mixing vats below the chairs and then a clunk sound as the sacks filled with cyanide pellets were dropped into the acid. Jeanette closed her eyes and held her breath as she counted to ten. She then took a deep breath and then another finally a third.
Jeanette’s head tilted backward and then fell forward. She raised her head again as her eyes opened slightly and then closed again. Her head roiled slightly to her right and then fell forward for the last time. Her shoulders slumped and then she was still. Six minutes went by and then the doctor could not hear a heartbeat coming from her chest. He waited a full tow minutes to make sure no beat was left and then removed his stethoscope form his ears.
The afternoon paper’s headlines read: Attractive bank robbery mastermind who used hubby to gain access to bank die in gas chamber dressed as she was going to the office.

 

Excellent story. Thank you.

 

You're welcome

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