Lacey Adams portrait   Save
Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections
Description: Before the Ohio Penitentiary’s closing in 1979, the execution chamber within the facility housed and displayed photographs of many of the prisoners sentenced to death throughout the state’s history. This portrait of Lacey Adams is one of them. Adams was a member of a motley gang of Columbus residents led by an interior decorator named Henry Loudermilk. Adams was Loudermilk’s first recruit and was responsible for the subsequent recruitment of new gang members. He even hosted meetings at his house where the gang conspired and planned out future crimes. Adams, himself, was not a typical gangster. He was a father and had previously been a worker at his church. It was not until his wife’s recent death that he started involving himself in criminal activities. On December 10, 1931, Adams participated in the violent robbery and beating of an elderly farmer and blacksmith named John Kidney and his sister, Sarah. Adams and his fellow gang members entered Kidney’s home in Monroe Township with the intention of stealing a vast sum of $60,000 that was rumored to be hidden inside. In actuality the assailants were only able to find $446. Disappointed, they fled the crime scene, leaving the Kidney siblings completely incapacitated by their injuries. The Kidneys were later discovered by a visiting neighbor and were aided by the county sheriff. However, John’s injuries were fatal and he died while being assisted by the sheriff and his deputy. Sarah, on the other hand, eventually recovered and testified against her attackers in court. Lacey Adams was the third person involved in the Kidney murder to be executed. The caption at the bottom of his photograph reads, “No. 167, Lacey Adams of Pickaway County, electrocuted June 10th, 1932, for the murder of John Kidney of Pickaway County, Ohio.” View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL08226
Subjects: Ohio History--State and Local Government--Law; Ohio History--State and Local Government--Corrections; Capital punishment--Ohio--History; Electrocution; Death row; Ohio Penitentiary (Columbus, Ohio)
Places: Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections