Florida’s infamous electric chair, “Old Sparky,” has shocked many people over the years. Both the people perishing in the chair and those who witnessed it work. True crime buffs are likely aware that some of the most infamous criminals in America’s history have sat in Florida’s chair. Most notably, Ted Bundy. Florida’s chair was particularly well known for its frequent and terrifying malfunctions. Learn all about the origin of the electric chair in American justice, Florida’s chair in particular, and some of Old Sparky’s most gruesome glitches over the years.
“Old Sparky” And America
Believe it or not, the advent of the electric chair was an actual act of ‘humanity.’ This method replaced hanging in 1888 in New York for executions. Death by hanging is actually a particularly alarming way to go. Typically, the noose breaks the individual’s neck, and they die of suffocation. However, this process can take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes, and it is often relatively slow and painful.
America’s concept of leveling-up their execution methods to be more ethical by shocking people is disconcerting. In the chair’s hay day, the year 1949, 26 states used it as their go-to method to kill people. This is despite the fact that just one year after the chair was instated in New York the state had an incident where they described the deceased prisoner as “quite charred” post-chair. We are all just one step away from the Roman Colosseum with gladiators fighting bears in terms of ethics.
The jury is still out on whether using the chair would fall under cruel and unusual punishment based on the 8th Amendment. The Supreme Court has decided not to weigh in on that 140-year-old question just yet. Rumor has it that it could be another 140 years before the matter is resolved.
Florida’s Infamous Chair
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The nickname “Old Sparky” is often a catch-all phrase for any electric chair. 14 states nicknamed their seats Old Sparky. Three other states opted for the even more disconcerting title “Old Smokey” instead. Florida’s chair is particularly well known for a few reasons. For one, it’s snuffed the life out of the likes of criminals like Ted Bundy and Giuseppe Zangara, who attempted to assassinate FDR. The other reason was because it had some of the most infamous malfunctions in American history.
Florida’s sparky seat took the lives of over 300 people between the years of 1924 and 2000. As the legend goes, prisoners built the chair themselves from an oak tree that they cut down. However, the more accepted theory is that it was made by a carpenter in a cabinet shop. The initial wiring used things like leg electrodes constructed out of an old army boot and roofing copper that was constructed by a state official with no clear formal training.
Some new wiring components were implemented in 1961 and remained in use for 30 years. In 1999, the seat was replaced with one made out of larger and stronger wood so it wouldn’t be broken by a particularly large inmate. After lethal injection became the murder method of choice in 2000, the chair was taken out of commission and still exists on display today in a Georgia museum. The chair needed a break. It had only been given a short one for 15 years in the 1960s and 1970s, when the Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty for reasons like social injustices. Two-thirds of the people who lost their lives to Old Sparky were black men prior to the early 1960s.
Sparky’s Infamous Scuff Ups
Remember how scared Ted Bundy was of sitting in Old Sparky? It’s an understandable concern considering how particularly untrustworthy Florida’s chair was. It was almost a bragging right of the state, with the former attorney general Bob Butterworth being quoted as saying, “People who wish to commit murder, they’d better not do it in the state of Florida because we may have a problem with the electric chair,” in 1997. Grammar is truly an undervalued concept for some state officials.
There were three particularly alarming incidents in the 1990s that ultimately got Old Sparky banished. Just 17 months after Bundy met his maker, Jesse Tafero traumatized America. The trouble was that, after nearly 70 years of use, Sparky’s headpiece sponge was wearing out. A man was sent off to the store for another sponge, and he made the fatal mistake of getting a synthetic sponge instead of the sea sponges. Allegedly, Tafero had six-foot flames shooting out of the top of the chair when the sponge caught fire. The inmate had to be shocked three times in a row because he was still breathing after the first two.
After Tafero, another sponge of Old Sparkys’ lit on fire in 1997, shooting out flames a foot high while Pedro Medina was shocked. It was a sort of burn-at-the-stake type of experience for onlookers. The most infamous scuff-up was that of Allen Lee Davis in 1999. The blood that covered his shirt during the execution was not the ‘nosebleed’ officials suggested, according to onlookers. People saw his face, which was purple, contorted, and bloody. Davis also lay dying, with his chest heaving post-shock for a while. It’s unclear if the typical electrical current wasn’t strong enough for Allen or if Old Sparky had underperformed. Either way, that was it for the chair.
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