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Flashback: Rosenbergs go silently to electric chair

Executioner Joseph Francel sent the electrical charges through their bodies. Julius, the weaker, went first. He died with a grotesque smile on his lips. A wisp of smoke curled toward the ceiling as the current charged through Mrs. Rosenberg.

It took three shocks of 2,000 volts each to electrocute Mr. Rosenberg. Four jolts swept through Mrs. Rosenberg and still she was not dead. A fifth was ordered.

Warden Denno signaled Francel that all was ready and the slim little executioner threw the switch. There was a buzzing for three seconds and Rosenberg lurched forward, his hands clenched.

Francel released the switch. The body of Rosenberg, half dead, relaxed. Then came the second charge — for 57 seconds. Again the man tensed, and again relaxed as the buzzing halted. Then came the third charge.

The doctors stepped forward and applied their stethoscopes, “I pronounce this man dead,” Dr. Kipp advised the warden. Quickly two guards bundled the lifeless body onto a hospital cart and wheeled it into the autopsy room.

The condemned woman was dressed in an ill-fitting green figured print dress supplied by the state. She wore no stockings and on her feet were loafers similar to those worn by her husband.

She did not know as she sat there that her husband already was dead. Similarly, Julius, when he was strapped into the chair, did not know whether his wife had preceded him in death.

When the first electric shock was applied, a thick white stream of smoke curled upward from the football-type helmet on her head.

The juice went off and the burned body relaxed.

Then came the second shock... the third... the fourth. A prison guard stepped forward, released one strap and pulled down the round-necked dress.

Drs. Kipp and McCracken applied their stethoscopes, then conferred in low tones. Executioner Francel joined them.

“Want another?” he asked.

The doctors nodded and stepped back to their positions beside Denno, alongside the wall.

Francel again applied the switch.

When the doctors examined the body for a second time, they quickly pronounced her dead.

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1953/06/20/Rosenbergs-go-silently-to-electric-chair/5084629411212/