John Gilbert, Graham Executed in Gas Chamber
As Perpetrator of Nation’s Worst Mass Slaying;
By James D. Haxpsler
CANON CITY, Colo., UPI—Cool
ly accepting his fate, John Gilbert
Graham was executed Friday
night in Colorado’s gas chamber
for destroying an airliner that
carried his mother and 43 other
persons to death.
The 24-year-old father of two
children gulped the cyanide
fumes and passed into uncon
sciousness in seconds. He was
pronounced dead in 12 minutes.
After lapsing into unconscious
ness, the perpetrator of the na
tion’s worst recorded mass slay
ing gave out a shrill groan—the
last sound from the chamber
heard by 19 newsmen and a score
of officials.
Graham was convicted of mur
dering his mother, Mrs. Daisie E.
King, 53. She perished with 43
other men, women and children
Nov. I, 1955, when a United Air
Lines DC-6B was shattered by a
dynamite bomb. It crashed in a
sugar beet field near Longmont,
Colo. Mrs. King was on her way
to Anchorage.
Allho he never disclosed a
motive for planting a dynamite
device in his mother's luggage,
Graham named himself bene
ficiary in a $37,500 flight insur
ance policy he look out on his
mother's life. -
The husky, dark-haired killer
went to death “the calihest I’ve
ever seen,” said Deputy Warden
William Kinney, who has wit
nessed all 26 executions in Colo
rado’s gas chamber.
Nervous and fidgety on his last
day, Graham still was reported
in good spirits and humor toy his
final visitors. They included one
of his three court-appointed law
yers and the Rev. Justin McKer
nan, Roman Catholic chaplain a1;
the prison.
Father McKeman visited Gra
ham for 40 minutes Friday night
in the death row cell where the
young Denver businessman spent
his last days. Their exchange of
banter was interrupted when
Graham saw Warden Harry Tins
ley mount the ramp of his cell.
"Well, 1 guess its time," said
Graham with resignation.
As he left with Tinsley and
other officials, Graham turned
to the chaplain and remarked:
"Oh, chaplain, there are seven
cigars in my cell. You smoke
'em on me."
“God bless you,” Father Mc
Kernan said. “I hope God will
forgive you your sins.”
“Okay,” Graham nodded.
Not once during his stay in the
gray stonewalled prison did Gra
ham allude to the crime.
With Tinsley leading the way,
Graham walked erect and swiftly
from his cell up a long ramp and
into the penthouse death cell atop
the prison’s maximum security
building.
He entered a preparatory cell,
where a guard pointed to a pair
of prison-made shorts on a small
table.
“You’ll have to put these on,”
Graham was told.
Silently and calmly he re
moved prison garb and donned
the shorts. Then, he was led
blindfolded to the waiting chair
in the steel cocoon of death. His
arms and legs were shackled by
heavy leather straps and a
stethoscope was mounted to his
bare chest by an elastic band.
Before he left the death cham
ber, Tinsley patted the blindfold
ed man’s shoulders.
“Thanks, warden,” Graham
muttered—his last words.
At 7:56 p.m. (MST) the door to
the chamber clanked shut ” and
was locked.
A minute later 32 sodium cya
nide pellets held in a steel cup
beneath the chair were released.
They dropped 13 inches into a
container of sulphuric acid.
A white whisk of hydro-cyanic
fumes spiraled up.
His pale skin dry under the
brilliant lights, Graham darted
to die. His dark-thatchecl head
bobbed back, then slumped for
ward as he gulped for breath.
His neck was tense and from
his throat came a shrill gToan.
Dr. Corbin Robinson, prison
physician, listened through a re
mote stethoscope to Graham’s
heart—one he later described as
“a very tough one.”
Graham was unconscious at
7:59 p.m. Respiration ceased at
8:04. Two minutes later his heart
stopped. In another two minutes
he was pronounced dead.
The body was sent to Denver
for cremation.
Report Tells How Nikita Khrushchev
Barely Survived Leadership Challenge
NEW YORK m—‘The New York
Times said Saturday in a dispatch
from Warsaw that Soviet Corn
party controls the government.
Under this arrangement, they
added, Khrushchev would suc
ceed Marshal Nikolai A. Bulgan
in as Premier. Bulganin, in turn,
would replace Klementi Y. Vo
roshilov as chairman of the Pre
sidium of the Supreme Soviet, j
nearest equivalent to a president
of the Soviet Union.
V. M. Molotov, former foreign
minister and now minister of
state control, was said to be play
ing only a secondary role in So
viet leadership.
Malenkov became Premier on
Stalin’s death ' in 1953 but re
signed two years later after con
fessing failure on the job.
The Times’ story quoted well
informed Communists in Warsaw
as saying Khrushchev had made
a secret visit to Peiping in No
vember to plead for Red China’s
support in a threat to his power
in the party form the Stalinist
faction. This* was followed by
Peiping’s declared support of So
viet intervention in the Hungar
ian rebellion.
Malenkoy is considered closer
to the Stalinists than Khrushchev.
TURNS IN BROTHER
EMERSON, N.J., UP)—Mrs. Elaine
Okuniewski of Hillsdale was the
only witness Christmas Eve when
a motorist rammed into a parked
car here and then drove away.
She turned the license number
over to police.
Monday night the driver was
fined $100. He was Robert W.
Day, her brother. She didn’t know
it at the time of the accident.
munist Party Chief Nikita
Khrushchev was reported to have
barely survived a challenge to
his leadership.
The Times gave this account:
Khrushchev faced the chal
lenge at a meeting of the party’s
Central Committee in Moscow
last month. He won by a slim ma
jority on a vote to replace him as
First Secretary of the party with
former Premier Georgi Malen
kov.
The reports said Malenkov will
probably soon take over the party
secretaryship—a post of great
power in a country where the
Russian Ambassador
Turns Down. Invitation
To Inaugural Ball
WASHINGTON, UP)—Top iron
curtain diplomats here—including
Russian Ambassador Georgi Za
rubin—will be invited to Presi
dent Eisenhower’s inauguration
Jan. 21.
The State Department irriday
announced this decision after a
review of the matter.
Several hours later it was re
ported Zarubin had turned down
an invitation to attend the inaug
ural ball on the night of Jan. 21,
possibly because part of the* pro
ceeds of the ball will go to Hun
garian relief.
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