Frank Dudley Carter photograph   Save
Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections
Description: This photograph from the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus is of Frank Dudley Carter, a 25-year-old sailor. His formal attire suggests that the photograph was taken during his trial or sentencing. Carter murdered Sergeant Anthony Overberg while Overberg was serving a stakeout at Lawson's Drugstore in Norwood, Ohio. Carter was later arrested in Chicago, convicted, and became the 247th individual to be executed via the electric chair in Ohio. The caption at the bottom reads: “No. 247, Frank Dudley Carter of Hamilton County, Legally Electrocuted November 8, 1945, for the Murder of Police Sgt. Anthony H. Overburg of Norwood, Ohio.” 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: AL08301
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); Norwood (Ohio); Cincinnati (Ohio); Hamilton County (Ohio); Chicago (Illinois)