Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 February 1914 — CHIRKA AND RASICO MUST DIE IN CHAIR [ARTICLE]

CHIRKA AND RASICO MUST DIE IN CHAIR

Governor Ralston Refuses to Commute Sentences of Two Uxoricides—Deaths Set for 20th. Steve Chirka and Harry Rasico, wife murderers, whose death sentences were stayed until Feb. 20th by Governor Ralston, wifi he electrocuted on that day, the governor having determined riot to grant clemency by changing their punishment to fife imprisonment He said that he would himself he violating the law if he .commuted the sentences. In a letter to the prison warden the governor brought out the following points: Whether or not the death penalty should be inflicted in these cases was for the courts and not for me to determine. In deciding these oases of life or death, I can not ignore the rights of society nor forget the two wives slain by the hands of the men who had taken a pledge before heaven to love! cherish and defend them. I propose to do what I can to make wife killing an exceedingly dangerous thing under my administration. I can not close my eyes to the fact that the killing of wives is becoming more and more frequent in the commonwealth whose laws I have sworn to have executed. , - - While I am Governor of Indiana the man who is sentenced to death for the killing of his wife wifi have to make an extremely strong showing to move me to the exercise of executive clemency on his behalf. These will be the first executions since the electric ehair was substituted for the hangman’s knot in Indiana. The executions will take place in the prison at Michigan City Friday, Feb. 20th. No newspaper reporters will be permitted to witness the executions and every effort to keep the hosjr of the act secret and the detail® from becoming public will be exercised.