Norman Peacock portrait   Save
Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections
Description: Before the its closure, the Ohio Penitentiary housed the photographs of hundreds of prisoners who were condemned to death throughout the state’s history. These images were displayed within the east annex of the facility, where death row and the execution chamber were located. This portrait of 22-year-old Norman Peacock is one of them. During an attempted robbery of a Cincinnati shoe store, Peacock fatally shot Marie and Morris Hockfield, the store’s proprietors. The caption at the bottom of his photograph reads: “No. 197, Norman Peacock of Hamilton County, Electrocuted March 11th, 1936, for the Murders of Mr. and Mrs. Morris Hockfield at Cincinnati, Ohio.” In 1885, the Ohio Penitentiary became the site of all executions for prisoners on death row; formerly, executions had taken place in the county where the crime was committed. In 1896, the Ohio General Assembly mandated that electrocution replace hanging as the state’s only form of capital punishment. Altogether there were 315 people who were electrocuted at the Ohio Penitentiary, their deaths occurring between 1897 and 1963. Peacock was the 197th prisoner in Ohio to be executed in this manner. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL08251
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: Hamilton County (Ohio); Cincinnati (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio); Columbus (Ohio)