August 6, 1890 was thought to be a momentous day in human history.
On that day, at Auburn State Prison, William Kemmler, a Buffalo produce peddler who had been convicted of murdering his common-law wife, Tillie Ziegler, with a hatchet after a drunken argument, was put to be put to death in a new, innovative machine -- the electric chair.
Never before had anyone been intentionally killed by electricity. New York State politicians and health experts were certain that it would be a quicker, cleaner and, most of all, more humane way of ending the life of a condemned person. It had to better than the unreliable method of hanging someone.
