Charles Stewart portrait   Save
Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections
Description: This photograph from the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus is of Charles Stewart, a 30-year-old porter from Akron. His formal attire suggests that the photograph was taken during his trial or sentencing. While Stewart was convicted of murdering Mabel Baxendale, he also faced a second-degree-murder indictment in the rape and murder of Celia Senser, also of Akron. The caption at the bottom reads: “No. 246, Charles Stewart of Summit County, Legally Electrocuted October 10, 1945, for the Murder of Mrs. Mabel Baxendale.” 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: AL08300
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; Portrait photography
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio); Akron (Ohio); Summit County (Ohio)