Thomas Williams photograph   Save
Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections
Description: This photograph from the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus is of Thomas Williams, a 37-year-old man of Lucas County, Ohio. His formal attire suggests that the photograph was taken during his trial or sentencing. Williams confessed to murdering Samual Arnovitz and Herman Kandler during an attempted carjacking in Toledo Ohio. He was the 231st individual to be executed via the electric chair in Ohio. The caption at the bottom reads: "No. 231, Thomas Williams of Lucas County, Legally Electrocuted December 19th, 1941, for the Murder of Samuel Arnovitz." In 1885 the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio, became the location for all executions, which previously took place in the various county seats. In 1896 the Ohio General Assembly mandated that electrocution replace hanging as the form of capital punishment. The Ohio Penitentiary regularly offered tours as well as souvenir photographs and postcards of the building and prisoners on death row. A total of 315 prisoners, both men and women, were executed in the electric chair known as “Old Sparky” between 1897 and 1963. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL08285
Subjects: Ohio History--State and Local Government--Law; Capital punishment--Ohio--History; Death row; Electrocution; Ohio History--State and Local Government--Corrections; Ohio Penitentiary (Columbus, Ohio); Prisons--Ohio
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio); Lucas County (Ohio)