Refined Torture

Wilbert Lee ("Pass the Biscuits Pappy") O'Daniel, radio whooper and flour salesman, last week further differentiated his new career as Governor of Texas from that of other Governors by granting to a chair-condemned murderer a 30-day reprieve for an unusual reason. Governor O'Daniel, reprieved Negro Murderer Winzell Williams, who killed a 63-year-old white dairyman, because, said the Governor, few punishments could be worse than "to see certain death staring you in the face day & night for 30 days." When Texans protested his cruelty, Governor O'Daniel explained he sought to arouse sentiment against capital punishment.

> When Ruby Laffoon was Governor of Kentucky in 1934, he stayed the execution of Murderer Sylvester Warner, 24, to study his case. Fourteen months passed, "Happy" Chandler succeeded Ruby Laffoon. Years passed, 25 other prisoners marched to their doom, and still Murderer Warner, forgotten, waited in the death house. Last week Governor Chandler got around to a decision, said Warner must die this week as planned five years ago.

> At Fort Madison, Iowa, 23 members of the Iowa Legislature last week slept one night in cells of Iowa State Penitentiary, four of them in death row, for the "thrill."

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