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EXECUTED DEAD GIRLS - BARBARA GRAHAM

Barbara Graham

1923 - 1955 

EXECUTED

Barbara
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Ethel
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Ruth
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Barbara Graham was born in 1923 in Oakland California - just across the bay from where she would be executed - in San Quentin's gas chamber.

Babs had a rough childhood. Her teenage mother was sent to reform school and strangers raised her. As a teenager she became promiscuous and got in trouble with the law. She was sent to the same reformatory where her mother had been an inmate. After her release, she tried to live a normal life. She got married, enrolled in business school, and had a child. But by 1941 she was divorced. She had another two brief marriages, had another child, and even tried working as a nurse. Eventually, she became a prostitute and became involved with gambling and drugs. She became a star call girl in San Francisco for Sally Stanford, the city's most infamous madam. In and out of jail for prostitution charges, Barbara's circle of friends included hardened criminals. In 1953 she met and married Henry Graham and had her third child, Tommy.

Graham introduced her to his partners in crime Emmet Perkins and Jack Santo. Eventually, she had an affair with Perkins. He told her about an elderly widow, Mrs. Mabel Monahan, who was thought to keep large sums of money and jewelry in her house.

Perkins, Santo, Barbara, along with other gang members, John True and Baxter Shorter, invaded the old lady's house. Evidently, Barbara got the gang into the house by asking to use the telephone. When the old lady either couldn't or wouldn't hand over the money and jewels, Barbara was supposed to have gone berserk.

John True testified later that Barbara lost patience and began to pistol whip Mrs. Monahan. With the other gang member cheering her on, Barbara cracked open the old lady's skull. Finally, Barbara suffocated her to death with a pillow. The gang earned nothing. There was no money and no jewelry. Perkins had been "misinformed."

The gang members were soon arrested. True gave evidence against the others in return for immunity from prosecution. Shorter agreed to turn State's evidence, but he was mysteriously kidnapped and never seen again.

Barbara protested her innocence. As the misbegotten mother of three children, she might have stood a good chance for a commutation, a pardon, or even a new trial. But while in prison, Barbara offered to pay $25,000 to a fellow inmate who offered an alibi. However, the fellow inmate turned out to be an undercover policewoman who tape-recorded their conversations.

The tapes were played in court. Barbara tearfully explained, "Oh, have you ever been desperate? Do you know what it means not to know what to do?'

Barbara, Perkins and Santo were all convicted and sentenced to death. Barbara spent her appeal period at the California Institute for Women at Corona.

Eventually, she was driven to San Quentin to spend her final hours. Her execution was originally scheduled for 10:00 a.m. on June 3, 1955. She spent the last night of her life in the company of a nurse. In the morning, she dressed in a beige wool suit and brown pumps. Her initial execution time was stayed until 10:45. Perkins and Santos had been executed earlier that day. At 10:43 she was being prepared when a second stay was granted - this time until 11:30 a.m. Tortured by these stays, Barbara exclaimed, "Why do they torture me? I was ready to go at 10:00." As the next execution time neared, Barbara requested a blindfold - the only gas chamber victim who ever asked for one. "I don't want to have to look at people," she explained. At 11:28 a.m., she was led from the holding cell escorted by two Catholic Priests and was strapped into one of the two chairs in the gas chamber.

As executioner Joe Feretti strapped her into the chair, he said to her, "Now take a deep breath and it won't bother you." Barbara retorted, "How in the hell would you know?"

Barbara Graham's last words: "Good people are always so sure they're right."

Her innocence and her guilt are debated to this day.

HISTORICAL: Celebrity Wives Depression Era European Executed Porno Stars Starlets Western