Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 January 1914 — TWO SLATERS TO BE ELECTROCUTED SOON [ARTICLE]

TWO SLATERS TO BE ELECTROCUTED SOON

First Executions Since New Method c os Taking Life Was Installed In This State. . **• - Steve Chirka, a wife murderer of Lake county, Who is to be electrocuted Friday, will be the thirteenth man executed at the Indiana state prison since 1911. Harry Rasico, formerly of Vincennes, Ind, who killed his wife and. child at Terre Haute, is to be electrocuted one week later. The execution of Chirka and .Rasico will be the first in Indiana in nearly seven years and they will be the first since the method of inflietng capital punishment was changed from hanging to electrocution. Few protests against the executions have been received by Governor Ralston. Most letters asking that the death sentence be commuted to life imprisonment have been written in behalf of Chirka, who is a Roumanian. The governor has not indicated any intention of ' interfering with the judgment of the courts that the two men should pay the penalty of ther crimes with death.

In bdhalf of Ohirka the representation has been made to the governor that the convicted man shot his wife because of alleged infidelity. Until 1901 executions in Indiana were conducted from scaffolds erected in jail yards. In that year the legislature provided that all executions should be held at the 9tate prison. The largest number of executions since that time was in 1903, when four men were put to death. The executions at the prison, all of murderers, have been as follows: Joseph D. Keith, Gibson county, Nov. 15, 1901; John Rinkard, Grant bounty, Jan. 17, 1902; W. B. Wheeler, Warrick county, June 6, 1902; Louis Rusesll, Gibson county, Sept. 26, 1902; Matthew Alexander, Vigo county, April 16,1903; William Jackson, Vandeiburg county, June 12, -1903; Orle Oopenhaver, Marion county, June 12, 1903; Edward Hoover, Marion county, Nov. 13,1903; Benjam)in Springs, Vigo county, July 1, 1904; Jerry Duigigins, Vigo county, July'S, 1904; Berkley Smith, Marion county, June 30, 1905; George Williams, Marion county, Feb. 8, 1907. An electric chair has been installed at the prison at Michigan City and all preparations for the executions have been completed.