Arthur Gooch (criminal)

Arthur Gooch
Born(1909-01-04)January 4, 1909
Arkansas, U.S.
DiedJune 19, 1936(1936-06-19) (aged 27)
McAlester, Oklahoma, U.S.
Cause of deathExecution by hanging
Criminal statusExecuted
Conviction(s)Kidnapping (18 U.S.C. § 408) (2 counts)
Criminal penaltyDeath

Arthur Gooch (January 4, 1909 – June 19, 1936[1])[2] was an American criminal, who is notable for being the only person executed under the Federal Kidnapping Act who did not kill the victim(s).

Gooch was the only person sentenced to death and executed by the federal government of the United States[3] for a kidnapping in which the victim(s) were not killed. Gooch and another man, Ambrose Nix, kidnapped police officers R.N. Baker and H.R. Marks in Texas on November 26, 1934, and released them in Oklahoma.[4] Baker was badly injured after being shoved into a glass case, which then broke during the kidnapping. This made the crime a capital offense since the victims had not been released unharmed.[5]

Nix was killed while resisting arrest on December 23, 1934.[5]

Although the electric chair was the only method of execution in Oklahoma at this time, Gooch was executed by hanging. Like Gooch, another federal inmate James Alderman, executed in Florida on August 17, 1929, was also hanged, despite the fact that Florida state law authorized electrocution as a sole method.[6]

The sentence was carried out by Oklahoma's state executioner, Rich Owens. According to the witnesses Gooch's hanging was botched, Gooch reportedly struggling for 15 minutes before dying. Many blamed Owens for this failure, as this was the only hanging he ever performed and the first hanging in Oklahoma since 1911.[7]

His last words were reported to have been, "It's kind of funny—dying. I think I know what it will be like. I'll be standing there, and all of a sudden everything will be black, then there'll be a light again. There's got to be a light again—there's got to be."[8] Gooch was 27 years old at time of his execution.[1]

  1. ^ a b "Oklahoma Executions". Archived from the original on March 29, 2008. Retrieved April 18, 2008.
  2. ^ "Arthur James Gooch (1909-1936) - Find a Grave..." www.findagrave.com. Retrieved 2022-04-09.
  3. ^ "Federal Executions 1927-2003". Death Penalty Information Center. Archived from the original on April 12, 2008. Retrieved March 9, 2008.
  4. ^ "The Federal Death Penalty". Death Row Speaks. Archived from the original on March 8, 2005. Retrieved July 7, 2021.
  5. ^ a b "Gooch v. United States, 82 F.2d 534 (10th Cir. 1936)". Justia Law. Retrieved 2022-05-10.
  6. ^ "340 Federal, 271 Territorial and 40 Indian Tribunal Executions 1790 to 1963". Archived from the original on April 13, 2003. Retrieved February 23, 2012.
  7. ^ Zizzo, David (August 17, 2003). "Executioner's Song". The Oklahoman.
  8. ^ Nelson, Lane & Foster, Burk (2001). "Any Last Words?". Death Watch: A Death Penalty Anthology. Prentice Hall. pp. 283–296. Archived from the original on March 16, 2008 – via BurkFoster.com.