You Won't BELIEVE Who Invented the Electric Chair!

Alfred P. Southwick, a Buffalo, New York dentist, is credited with conceiving the electric chair in the 1880s as a means to provide a more humane method of execution than the often-gruesome hangings of the era. His inspiration reportedly stemmed from witnessing an intoxicated man die instantaneously after touching an exposed electrical generator, leading him to believe that a controlled application of electricity could offer a swift and less painful end. Southwick, drawing on his familiarity with specialized seating from his dental practice, envisioned a custom-designed chair for this purpose, publishing his ideas in scientific journals in the early 1880s.

The development of this new execution method became entangled in the heated "War of the Currents," a rivalry between Thomas Edison, who advocated for direct current (DC), and George Westinghouse, who championed alternating current (AC). Although Edison was personally against capital punishment, he saw an opportunity to discredit Westinghouse's AC system by associating it with the deadly new device. He secretly financed the construction of the chair and even suggested that electrocutions be referred to as "Westinghousing" to emphasize the perceived dangers of alternating current. Westinghouse, conversely, attempted to distance himself from the invention and even funded legal appeals for William Kemmler, the first person slated to be executed in the electric chair.

Despite the initial hopes for a more humane death, Kemmler's execution on August 6, 1890, was anything but. The first jolt of electricity failed to kill him, necessitating a second, higher voltage application that resulted in a prolonged and gruesome ordeal, with witnesses describing his body bleeding and even catching fire. This horrifying debut immediately called into question the humanitarian claims of the electric chair. Nevertheless, New York adopted the method, and it eventually became a widespread form of capital punishment in the United States for decades, enduring as a symbol of the death penalty despite its controversial and often criticized beginnings.