Executions in Utah Before 1967
44 executions occurred in the State of Utah and Utah Territory before the national moratorium in 1967; six were by hanging and the rest were by firing squad. Before the establishment of Utah Territory on September 9, 1850, the garroting of an Ute native named Patsowits in the spring of that year was the first recorded execution in the provisional State of Deseret.
| # | Name | Date of execution | Method of execution | Victim(s) | Governor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| * | Patsowits | Spring 1850 | garroting | An emigrant settler | — |
| 1 2 |
Antelope and Long Hair | September 15, 1854 | hanging | Two sons of a Mormon bishop in Cedar Valley | Brigham Young |
| 3 | Thomas H. Ferguson | October 28, 1858 | hanging | Alexander Carpenter | Alfred Cumming |
| 4 | William Cockcroft | September 21, 1861 | firing squad | Robert Brown | vacant |
| – | "Unknown Man" | 1862 | firing squad | Unknown person | |
| 5 | Jason R. Luce | January 12, 1864 | firing squad | Samuel R. Bunton | James Duane Doty |
| 6 | Robert Sutton | October 10, 1866 | firing squad | Frederick White | Charles Durkee |
| 7 | Chauncy W. Millard | January 29, 1869 | firing squad | Harlem P. Swett | vacant |
| 8 | John Doyle Lee | March 23, 1877 | firing squad | Mountain Meadows massacre | George W. Emery |
| 9 | Wallace Wilkerson | May 16, 1879 | firing squad (botched) | William Baxter | |
| 10 | Frederick Hopt (a.k.a. Fred Welcome) | August 11, 1887 | firing squad | John Franklin Turner | Caleb Walton West |
| 11 | Enoch Davis | September 14, 1894 | firing squad | Enoch's wife | |
| 12 | Charles H. Thiede | August 7, 1896 | hanging | Thiede's wife | Heber Manning Wells |
| 13 | Pat Coughlin | December 15, 1896 | firing squad | Deputy Sherriff Dawes and Constable Stagg | |
| 14 | Peter Mortensen | November 20, 1903 | firing squad | James R. Hay | |
| 15 | Frank Rose | April 22, 1904 | firing squad | Rose's wife | |
| 16 | J. J. Morris | April 30, 1912 | hanging | Morris' wife | William Spry |
| 17 | Jules C. E. Szirmay (a.k.a. Jules Zirmay) | May 22, 1912 | firing squad | A school boy | |
| 18 | Harry Thorne | September 26, 1912 | firing squad | A grocery clerk | |
| 19 | Thomas Riley | October 24, 1912 | firing squad | A grocery clerk | |
| 20 | Frank Romeo | February 20, 1913 | firing squad | Albert Jenkins | |
| 21 | Joe Hill | November 19, 1915 | firing squad | John G. Morrison and his son Arlington | |
| 22 | Howard DeWeese | May 24, 1918 | firing squad | His wife | |
| 23 | John Borich | January 20, 1919 | firing squad | A woman for insurance money | |
| 24 | Steve Maslich | January 20, 1922 | firing squad | A man in Salt Lake City | Charles R. Mabey |
| 25 | Nick Oblizalo | June 9, 1922 | firing squad | A man in Salt Lake City | |
| 26 | George H. Gardner | August 31, 1923 | firing squad | Joseph Irvine and a police officer | |
| 27 | Omer R. Woods | January 18, 1924 | firing squad | Woods' invalid wife | |
| 28 | Henry C. Hett (a.k.a. George Allen) | February 20, 1925 | firing squad | Police sergeant Pierce | George Dern |
| 29 | Pedro Cano | May 19, 1925 | firing squad | A woman in Park City | |
| 30 | Ralph W. Seyboldt | January 15, 1926 | firing squad | Patrolman David H Crowther | |
| 31 | Edward McGowan | February 5, 1926 | firing squad | Bob Blevins (and raped his wife and daughters) | |
| 32 | Delbert Green | July 10, 1936 | firing squad | Green's foster father/uncle James Green, mother-in-law/aunt, and wife | Henry H. Blood |
| 33 | John W. Deering | October 31, 1938 | firing squad | Oliver R. Meredith Jr. | |
| 34 | Donald Lawton Condit | July 30, 1942 | firing squad | Harold A. Thorne | Herbert B. Maw |
| 35 | Robert Walter Avery | February 5, 1943 | firing squad | Detective Hoyt L. Gates | |
| 36 | Austin Cox Jr. | June 19, 1944 | firing squad | Judge Lewis V. Trueman (also killed two other men and two women) | |
| 37 | James Joseph Roedl | July 13, 1945 | firing squad | Abigail Agnes Williams | |
| 38 | Eliseo J. Mares Jr. | September 10, 1951 | firing squad | Jack D. Stallings | J. Bracken Lee |
| 39 | Ray Dempsey Gardner | September 29, 1951 | firing squad | Shirley Jean Gretzinger | |
| 40 | Don Jesse Neal | July 1, 1955 | firing squad | Sgt. Owen T. Farley | |
| 41 42 |
Verne Alfred Braasch and Melvin Leroy Sullivan | May 11, 1956 | firing squad | Howard Manzione | |
| 43 | Barton Kay Kirkham | June 7, 1958 | hanging (last in Utah) | David Avon Frame (also killed Ruth Holmes Webster but was executed for murdering Frame) | George Dewey Clyde |
| 44 | James W. Rodgers | March 30, 1960 | firing squad (last in Utah before 1967) | Charles Merrifield |
Read more about this topic: Capital Punishment In Utah
Famous quotes containing the word executions:
“[Asserting] important First Amendment rights ... why should [executions] be the one area that is conducted behind closed doors?... Why shouldn’t executions be public?”
—Phil Donahue (b. 1935)