Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 188, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 August 1920 — ELECTROCUTED AT EARLY HOUR FOR CRIME [ARTICLE]

ELECTROCUTED AT EARLY HOUR FOR CRIME

Michigan City, Ind., Aug s.—William Ray, negro 19 years old, confessed murderer of Martha Huff, 14 year old Indianapolis white girl, was executed at the state prison here this morning. Ray met death in the electric chair dnd was pronounced dead after the first charge. Ray was the first man to pay the death penalty in Indiana since 1916 when Kelly Robinson, also an Indianapolis negro was electrocuted for the murder of John Roe. History of Crime. Indianapolis, Aug. s.—The crime for which William Ray was executed early this morning at the state prison at Michigan City is one of the most brutal recorded in the criminal annals of the state. Ray, according to his own confession enticed the girl away from her home on the pretext that a white family of his acquaintance wished to give her some clothing. After taking her to a lonely spot, he said he attacked her, and in an effort to stifle her screams, stabbed her thirteen times. The girl’s mutilated body was later found in Eagle Creek where the negro had thrown it. After the negro's arrest here large crowds gathered around the jail where he was being held and it was thought an attempt to lynch the prisoner would be made. Police were able to break up the gatherings however.