May 2, 1923

On May 2, 1923, two murderers were dispatched for their execution of a policeman.

Emilio Picariello was a 44-year-old bootlegger and his girlfriend was 22-year-old Florence Lassandro.  She was also his accomplice.  During Prohibition, Picariello was one of the more notorious rum-runners, flushing alcohol through Crowsnest Pass.  He was known as “Emperor Pic” and had a vicious reputation.

On September 29, 1922, in Coleman, Picariello sought out Constable Steven Lawson.   Apparently, Constable Lawson had arrested “Emperor Pic’s son and that just wouldn’t do.  Picariello and Lassandro shot Lawson, obviously believing that they were above the touch of the law.

The court rendered its verdict:  Emilio Picariello guilty of the murder of Steven Lawson; Filumena Lassandro guilty of the murder as an accomplice.

The sentence:  to be hanged at the neck until he/she is dead.

So, on May 2, 1923, at Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, hangman Wakefield sent Emilio Picariello to the great beyond.  After the Emperor Pic was no more, Filumena was brought to the scaffold.  Her last words were:  “Why do you hang me when I didn’t do anything?  Is there no one here who has any pity?”

No, no pity, but plenty of justice for a law officer who died because he was doing his job and had dared to touch one of the annointed ones of Picariello’s clan.

Both Picariello and Lassandro had been born in Italy; their remains are buried in Edmonton, Alberta.

May 2, 1919

On May 2, 1919, Charles Cooper, 36 years old, was hanged for the murder of Theodore Taylor.  Actually, Cooper,  along with two juvenile accomplices, were robbing Theodore Taylor on May 24, 1918, near Tomstown.  Cooper decided to speed things along by beating Taylor to death.

The early young offenders both received long prison terms.

Charles Cooper received the death sentence.  The hangman was Arthur English.

He was hanged at the Nipissing District Jail, in North Bay, Ontario, Canada.

May 2, 1883

A wee while ago, back when the appeals process was somewhat abbreviated, death sentences were swiftly carried out, lest the local population take matters into their own hands and perform a lynching.

On May 2, 1883, 69-year-old Henry Fohrman was executed by the state of Montana.  In Lewis and Clark County, he was hanged for the murder of a fellow ranch hand.

May 2, 1864

At a trial held in London & Middlesex County, 24-year-old John Devine was found guilty of murdering Joseph Duck.

It seems that Devine had once worked for good ol’ Joe Duck, but Joe had been forced to fire John for his stupendous laziness.  Although he was formally retired from his profession as a builder, Duck still kept his hand in the business by doing jobs every now and again.  He could never stand idle men.

Devine had become a professional beggar of sorts and was an all around mooch.  Unfortunately, Joe Duck had a habit of stopping in at his local pub every evening and it was this custom that lead to his death.  On March 10th, 1864, he popped in to the King’s Head, in Great Chesterfield Street, Marylebone, and was busy showing off his two gold sovereigns to the clientele.

And who should be there amongst the crowd?  Why, lo and behold, it was that lazy skank  —   John Devine.  And John decided that Joe shouldn’t have those coins, that really they were rightfully his!  Wasn’t he reduced to being a beggar because of Joe firing him and telling others the reason for said firing?

The evening wore on and Devine left a little before closing.  Feeling no pain at all, Joseph Duck toddled off after  the pub closed and began to make his way home.  He lived near by and it was just a short distance.  He wouldn’t make it.

Once alone on the street, Duck was weaving his way home when John Devine suddenly appeared from the dark shadows and began to beat Joe over the head with a hammer.  How many blows he delivered is unknown, but Joseph Duck died hours later at the hospital, never regaining consciousness.

It was not a difficult challenge to figure out who had done the deed, and once the coins were found on Devine, he was as good as done.  He was arrested the next day and tried at the Old Bailey the following month.

His defense?  He merely meant to rob Joe Duck, not murder him.  It wasn’t his fault if Joe Duck’s head couldn’t fend off an iron hammer being repeatedly struck against it, now was it?

Hmmmm.  Well, according to English jurisprudence, it was John Devine’s fault.  Joseph Duck was dead and John Devine’s hand held the hammer and delivered the blows.  Perhaps the court pondered the defense claim and let John know that if he merely meant to rob the man and not kill him, then one or two hammer strikes would have sufficed?

Frankly, I doubt that such an enlightening comment was made to John Devine and it probably would have been a waste of the judge’s breath to do so anyway.  Like all criminals, especially in today’s world, they are never sorry, they are only sorry they got caught.  And hey, he didn’t mean to murder him, so like, can we just forget about it?  It is unlikely that he would have been given such a fair sentence today, but back in 1864, things were a little more decent for victims of crime:  John Devine was found guilty and sentenced to death.

As such, Devine was then hanged on May 2, 1864, at Newgate, England’s busiest dispatch site.

The hangman was William Calcraft.

May 2, 1837

The Old Bailey saw a tremendous amount of activity.  Newgate in England was a favourite spot for public hangings for the “customers” of the Old Bailey.  As such, the county of London & Middlesex saw a lot of action!

On May 2, 1837, 52-year-old James Greenacre was hanged at Newgate for the murder of Mrs. Hannah Brown.  The hangman was William Calcraft.

May 2, 1810

In Cheshire County, England, on May 2, 1810, Thomas Done was hanged at Chester for the murder of Betty Eckersley.

May 1, 2001

On this date, May 1, 2001, prisoner Marilyn Plantz was executed via lethal injection by the state of Oklahoma for the capital crime of murder.  She became the 28th inmate to die for the year 2001 and the 711th execution since the United States began carrying out the death sentences again in 1976.

In 1988, she was convicted of the murder of her husband, 33-year-old James Plantz.  Not the one to seek a divorce, Marilyn was screwing around on her husband with a *much* younger man — 18-year-0ld William Clifford Bryson.  Looking to start fresh, sans husband and with life insurance money, she arranged to have her lover murder James so that she could collect on the $319,000 accidental life insurance coverage.

The problem was having their brainiacs make it look like an accident.

On August 26, 1988, James returned to his humble abode after finishing the night shift in his capacity as pressroom supervisor at The Oklahoman.  James was a dependable, punctual, fair, well-liked employee and human being.  He was utterly in love with his children, Trina and Christopher.  In his spare time, he made sure to take the kids with him wherever he went.

James was also well-loved.  The third of four children, he grew up in a stable and loving environment in Pottawatomie County.  The ramifications of Marilyn’s actions would ripple further than simply the removal of James Plantz from her life.

As James entered his home, he was attacked by Bryson and a pal of his, Clinton McKimble.  They proceeded to beat him with the two baseball bats Marilyn had provided them with from little Christopher’s room.  She watched as they assaulted the father of her children and the man she swore to love and cherish till death do they part.

The two youngsters, goons R us, left James Plantz on the floor and Marilyn went to check their handy work.

Not satisfied, she discovered that he was still alive — albeit in horrific pain and definitely damaged, but still alive.

Worse still, she stated that he did not look like he had been in an accident.  She didn’t count the marriage to her as an accident, I guess.

“Burn him,” was her next request.

So, eager to please his lady love, Bryson and McKimble bundled the poor man into his truck and drove him to a deserted location.  They doused Jim and the truck with gasoline and set the whole thing ablaze.

Problem was Jim was still alive.

The medical examiner was able to establish that James Plantz was alive and breathing when he was burned to death due to the presence of smoke and ash in his lungs.

Are you getting the picture yet?

Well, in any murder-for-gain plot, there are what is known as in cop-circles, “the weak link” — a person who had the least guilt and the most to lose if they found their nuts in a vice.

In this case, that was the idiotic friend of Bryson, good ol’boy Clinton McKimble.  He turned state’s evidence in exchange for a life sentence.  Bryson’s goose was cooked at this point.

With McKimble’s evidence, Bryson told the police the whole sordid plot.  Marilyn, he said, and he were in love.  She had asked Jim for a divorce and he threatened to kill himself.

Um, well, ya, ok, you’re an 18-year-old boy who obviously don’t know his ass from a hole in the ground, so ya, I can see where you’d believe that.  Problem is I don’t think she ever asked him for a divorce because he would likely say, “Bye, bye.  Don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out.  Oh, and by the way, I’M keeping the house and the kids!”

See, that’s a more likely scenario.  She’d want the kids for money as in child support.  I don’t think Bryson thought it through, you know, how he’d end up being Daddy to her little ones, eh?  Somehow I don’t think he was exactly privy to all of Marilyn’s ideas.

Back to Bryson, the tool, I mean, the lover.  Well, he said that it was her idea and that the two of them we planning to move away from Oklahoma and get married and live happily ever after — you know, like she did with James.

So the police knew the why and the how and even the who.  But Marilyn claimed to know nothing about the entire plot.  Poor Bryson must have been just so love-crazed that he went and killed James on his own, right?  I mean, Jim and Marilyn had a picture-perfect marriage:  never an unkind word, no fights, no scenes.

Hmm, maybe that’s what she needed.

Anyway, the cops finally put the pieces of the puzzle together and convicted everyone’s sad ass as a final homage to the man that we lost when these pieces of shit murdered James Plantz.  As mentioned above, his family lost a good brother, his friends lost a fantastic man, his employees lost a fair and decent boss, and, most important, his children lost an irreplaceable father.

And why?  Because Marilyn Plantz wanted to erase Jim from the earth and collect money for doing so, all the while shacking up with a two-bit hood.  The three of these ass-hats couldn’t amount to one-tenth the worth of James Plantz, but that is what we are left with.

Well, not actually.

See, on June 15, 2000, William Clifford Bryson, after spending twelve years fighting the ultimate ending to the sentence he actually wrote, he was put to death via the state of Oklahoma and lethal injection.

It is a happy ending to an otherwise seedy chapter in this book.

And so, it is down to two pieces of shit, one of whom will spend the rest of his days in the Oklahoma prison system — Mr. McKimble.  And that other turd?

Ah, I’ve saved the best for last.

On this date, May 1, 2001, the state of Oklahoma closed the chapter on the person who started the whole sorry story — Marilyn Plantz exited this planet through the final cocktail as payment for her selfish, greedy, self-centered, narcissistic soul.

After resisting society’s bill for her actions for well over a decade, she finally had to “belly up to the bar” and pay in full.

Yes, Marilyn Plantz:  housewife, mother, Sunday school teacher, murderous adulterer — dead!

May 1, 1753

England had brutal punishments for crimes which varied in their severity.  Often, property crimes were punishable by death.

The time from conviction to execution varied but was never more than a matter of weeks.

The Wiltshire Assizes pushed through many criminals.  Up to 1796, executions were conducted at Fisherton Anger.

On a lovely Tuesday, May 1, 1753, the four executions for the year were held.  Convicted on March 19, 1753, a motley crew were executed on May 1st.

James Harvey was convicted and hanged for highway robbery.

Joseph Norris and John Wallis were convicted and hanged for arson.

Edward Reeds was the only criminal who was worthy of death.  He was convicted of the rape of a small girl, Hannah Bull who was under 10 years of age.

For this crime, Reeds was hanged along with the criminals who had only violated property.   As it was, Harvey, Norris and Wallis probably minded being on the same scaffold with the pervert Reeds.  🙂