For Sale! The Lonely Heart of Martha Beck

The Lonely Heart of Martha Beck

The Last Day of Martha Beck

 Martha Beck's last day. This is included in my new story. I'm in the final editing. Thinking of publishing the final story as an Ebook and maybe in a new format. A digest-size book I want to release about 4 times a year, (or more). It will be called, A Digest of Panhandle Mayhem. Probably 2 or 3 stories, both Ebook and actual books on hand and to order online.

Please let me know what you think.

This is only an excerpt. The whole story is about 78 pages.

March 8, 1951, Sing Sing State Prison, Ossining, New York

On Martha’s last day, she rose early. She had some coffee with some ham and eggs that she pushed around her plate unsuccessfully trying to encourage her appetite. After a shower, she spent a couple of hours writing letters to her sisters and some friends back in Pensacola. She thought about writing to her two young children but didn’t really know what to say to them. How could they ever forgive her? Her stifling need for Ray’s love and attention had burned any bridge she might have had to them. What kind of fleeting memories would they have of their brief time with her? Her mother got no letter. True, she had supported Martha during the trial, but Martha knew it was mostly self-serving attempts to absolve herself of any perceived blame in the way she was raised.

She was a little angry and showed the matron her displeasure. What were they going to do, put her on death row? Her regular matron, Helen Evans, who she liked very much and had developed a friendship with was not there. Another had the 9 to 5 shift and Martha took it as a subtle form of punishment. She scribbled a final note to Ray professing her undying love and asked the new girl to please get it to him in one of the other wings of the prison. She figured it would only make it as far as the nearest trash can.

Martha had requested a last meal of fried chicken and french-fried potatoes with a salad, and this was delivered at 5 pm. Surprisingly, her appetite had returned, and she was able to eat it all. She only had about six hours left. She tried not to think of the possibility of a stay of execution, but she was silently praying for her lawyer’s success.

For the hundredth time, she wondered how Ray was doing. She was thinking about him when the matron came in with a gray house dress for her to put on. During her trial she displayed a keen fashion sense, and the newspapers ate it up. Now she was reduced to prison gray. She was sure the reporters in attendance would make much of it.

After she dressed an attendant shaved a small bald spot on the top of her head where they would attach one of the electrodes. Another electrode would be attached to her right leg.

While Martha was watching the clock, the Warden, Wilfred L. Denno, and the executioner, Joseph Francel, were getting the execution chamber prepared. Four inmates were going to their reward that night and he would make $150 each. He was determined there would be no mistakes. There would be 32 witnesses. All but two were reporters representing 29 different papers. The two non-papermen were two Deputy Sheriffs from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Clarence Randle and James Toohey were two of the officers involved in the arrests of Ray and Martha for the murders of Deliphene Downing and her daughter Rainell. Martha had earlier told the warden that she would give her body to science if they would only spare Ray’s life. Warden Denno had to explain that the state made no deals of that nature.

Martha had issued a statement for the press through her attorney Herbert Rosenberg.

“I have sinned, and society will know that I am paying my debt. The sin is great and so is the penalty. This is not the minute to speak of who is to blame. What is in the past must remain in the past. Only those tortured by love as I was can know what I mean. I was pictured as a fat, unfeeling woman. True I am fat. But if that were a crime, how many of any sex would be guilty? I am not without feeling. I am not stupid. I am not a moron. I am a woman who has had a great love and always will have. Prisons and the death house have only strengthened my love for Raymond. In the history of the world, how many crimes have been attributed to love? Here are my last words and my last thought:

“Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. I love Raymond.”

The last couple of hours before her end, Martha spent with the Reverend Luther Hannam. Among many things they discussed was the way it was decided who went to the chair first. He explained that the chaplains in attendance discussed it, and whichever doomed inmate was the weakest and most emotionally distraught would be first. In this case, the first two would be two young men convicted of murder. Then it would be Ray with Martha last.

Since Martha was in the women’s wing, her walk would be the longest. The cell she was in had also been the brief home of Ruth Snyder, executed in 1928 for killing her husband with a sash weight. Martha was a smart woman. She knew her time was almost up. She was determined not to become any more of a spectacle than she already was. She would be brave. She would try, anyway.

At 11 pm sharp, John King was strapped into the electric chair, and by 11:06 he was pronounced dead. Richard Power was next, and the attending physician pronounced him at 11:11. Ray Fernandez, the suave, gold-toothed, balding lothario had to be carried and placed into the chair. Then it was time.

Martha was escorted by two matrons, Reverend Hannam, and a couple of male guards in case the matrons should need assistance. Martha had a little trouble fitting into the chair. Finally, with a little help, she was seated. She looked at the two matrons and gave them a little smile. The words, “so long” formed on her lips but no sound was heard. The executioner hit her with four jolts of electricity, and at 11:24 Martha was pronounced dead.

The next day the Lansing State Journal published, “. “The 200-pound murderess, her fat bulging under the straps, was the last of four persons executed in the space of 24 minutes.”

They just couldn’t resist one last insult.