Harry Chapman photograph   Save
Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections
Description: This photograph from the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus is of 36-year-old Harry Chapman, originally from Chicago, Illinois. Chapman was convicted of murdering two Springfield, Ohio, police officers; a father and son (Harry and Henry Dingledine) were also convicted and executed on the same night as Chapman. The caption at the bottom reads: “No. 218, Harry Chapman, of Clark County, Legally Electrocuted April 19th, 1939, for the Murder of Officers Martin Randolph and Edwin Furrey, at Springfield, 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. 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: AL08272
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); Springfield (Ohio); Clark County (Ohio); Chicago (Illinois); Cook County (Illinois)