James Thompson

Train Wrecker Pays With His Life in Chair

Article taken from The Lima News, April 26, 1936

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Columbus, April 25--(AP)--James Thompson, 28, shouted "good bye, boys," tonight as the black hood was placed on his face and then died in the ohio penitentiary electric chair at 8:15 p.m. for the murder of one of two men killed in a train he wrecked with hopes of robbing the mail car. Thompson silently entered the death chamber at 8:07 p.m. At 8:11 the first of three bursts of electricity surged thru his body. One minute later the current was turned off, and at 8:15 he was pronounced dead by Dr. George Keil, prison physician. Resigned to his fate, the wrecker appeared emotionless. He whispered, "don't screw it so tight" as death house attendants fastneded him into the chair. Then his "goodbye, boys" startled witnesses briefly and the current was turne on.

His spiritual adviser, James Stepro of Ironton, accompanied him in the room and shook hands with him just before he sat down. Stepro stood silently directly in front of the chair until Thompson's body was lifted out. It was sent to Ironton for funeral services Monday. Thompson, scheduled to die last night, gained an extra 24 hours of life by an appellate court order. A pair of Chicago gunmen, Donald Eberle and John Pleyer, both 30, who were originally ordered to die with Thompson in a triple execution Friday night, shouted "good-byes" at the condemned man as he was led from death row.

Sentenced for the slaying of Albert Wesosky, 20, Cleveland butcher boy, they were given stays after Pleyer appealed his case to the supreme court. Thompson confessed Aug. 15, 1935, that he wreked a Norfolk & Western train near Haverhill, O., April 12, 1932, killing Engineer j. H. meyers, 55, and Fireman J. J. Kemp, 55, both of Portsmouth. After his arrest the Lawrence-coman confessed another slaynig, that of Mrs. California Rogers, 74, in October of 1933. He told his captors he beat her to death with a flatiron during a robbery.