A Creepy Lesson in Crime and Punishment

History lessons can sometimes be dull. But when you're talking about the story behind an electric chair responsible for the deaths of 125 men, the National Museum of Crime and Punishment in Washington, D.C., believes that history can be exciting — and perhaps even terrifying. That's the focus of the museum's new haunted attraction, Fright at the Museum: Dead Men Walking, which runs Oct. 21-31.

Fright at the Museum introduces visitors to "Old Smokey," an electric chair used by the state of Tennessee from 1916 to 1960. The story of Old Smokey leading up to its acquisition by the museum in 2008 might generate some genuine shivers. In 1913, Tennessee installed the electric chair in the state prison after switching from hangings to electrocution as the state's main method of execution. Over the next 44 years, 125 men were electrocuted — 85 of the men black and 40 white. Executions peaked in the 1930s, when 47 men were put to death by the chair.

The men who met their end by Tennessee's electric chair were mostly executed for the crimes of rape and murder; however, not all may have been guilty. Author Shirley Dicks in her book "Victims of Crime and Punishment" tells the story of Maurice Mays, a black man who was electrocuted in 1922 only to be exonerated five years later after someone else confessed to the crime for which Mays was found guilty. The electric chair was retired in 1960, with the last execution occurring on Nov. 7 of that year. Twelve years later, the U.S. Supreme Court suspended the death penalty, deeming it cruel and unusual punishment.

Click to Enlarge

Some might say Old Smokey's unpleasant history has left a supernatural impression on the chair. Some even claim to have photographic proof. While renovating the chair in 1987, a worker took a picture (left) to document its condition. When the film was developed, the worker noticed that a person's face could be seen under the chair's leather headrest, and on both arms of the chair, hands could be seen with clenched fists. Did someone manipulate the image during the development process?

Arthur Nash, who is leasing the chair to museum, wrote of the photo, "Eastman Kodak's formal authentication determined that the negative hadn't been tampered with, and in the first generation print it is quite easy to distinguish not only a face, but both hands, as well."

The picture isn't the only sign that Old Smokey may be haunted. "We have had ... weird occurrences here that we always chalk up to the ghosts of the electric chair," Janine Vaccarello, CEO at the National Museum of Crime and Punishment, said. "For example, one of the FBI Top Ten was captured and someone posted a 'Captured' sign on the person's profile" at the museum. The creepy part, Vaccarello adds, is that "to date we cannot find the person who did this — even though we were trying to find the person to commend them." Vaccarello checked with all of the employees and even the team at America's Most Wanted, which films at the museum, but no one claimed to have done it.

Fright at the Museum, however, doesn’t dwell on the supernatural as much as the scares. The attraction takes up the entire second story of the museum and can take up to 30 minutes or more to get through. The victims of Old Smokey, placed throughout the museum, are played by members of George Washington University’s 14th Grade Players, one of three independent theater companies at the school. If you’re easily terrified by dimly lit hallways and shrieking ghosts, bring some friends. And if you get a slight chill while walking past Old Smokey, which is resting comfortably next to a gas chamber, you might want to keep walking. Chances are some real ghosts may be reaching out to say, "Hello."

Fright at the Museum: Dead Men Walking is $20 and runs Oct. 21-31. Ticket times are available on the museum’s Web site. Also, check out The geekTicket's photo gallery.

SOURCES

• National Museum of Crime and Punishment (October 21, 2009). "Dead Men Walking This Halloween Season at the National Museum of Crime and Punishment". Press release.
  
• Tennessee Department of Correction. Capital Punishment Chronology. 2009. Retrieved October 2009.
  
• Dicks, Shirley. "Victims of Crime and Punishment." IUniverse, 2000.
  
• Czop, Lisa Marie. "RE: Fright at the Museum." E-mail to author. 20 Oct. 2009.