{{Short description|American executioner (1874–1939)}} {{Other people|Robert Elliott}} {{Infobox person | name = Robert Greene Elliott | image = Robert Elliott (bourreau des US), Pacific - btv1b531871607.jpg | birth_date = {{Birth date|1874|01|27}} | birth_place = [[Hamlin, New York|Hamlin]], New York, US | death_date = {{Death date and age|1939|10|10|1874|01|27}} | death_place = [[Richmond Hill (Livingston, New York)|Richmond Hill]], New York, US | resting_place = Nassau Knolls Cemetery, [[Port Washington, New York|Port Washington]], New York | occupation = [[Electrician]], [[Executioner]] | employer = [[State of New York]] | title = [[State electrician]] | term = 1926–1939 | predecessor = [[John Hulbert (executioner)]] | successor = [[Joseph Francel]] }} '''Robert Greene Elliott''' (January 27, 1874 – October 10, 1939)<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|date=October 11, 1939|title=ROBERT G. ELLIOTT, EXECUTIONER, DIES; Official Here, 5 Other States Inflicted Death Penalty on Nearly 400--Was 65 ENDED HAUPTMANN'S LIFE Sacco and Vanzetti Were Also Among Those to Meet Capital Punishment at His Hand|work=[[New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1939/10/11/archives/robert-g-elliott-executioner-dies-official-here-5-other-states.html|access-date=October 28, 2020}}</ref> was the [[New York State Electrician]] (i.e., [[executioner]]) – and for those neighboring states that used the [[electric chair]], including New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Massachusetts – during the period 1926–1939.
==Biography== He was born in [[Hamlin, New York]], the son of Irish immigrants Thomas Elliott and Martha Jane Elliott (née Rowley). As a child he was a devout [[Methodist]], and at one point his parents wanted him to be a minister. As a young boy Elliott recounts that he read of the first use of the electric chair and wondered what it might be like to throw the switch at an execution. He became employed in the prison service as a regular electrician, ultimately in charge of the power-house at Dannemora Prison in upstate New York. In that capacity he remotely assisted [[Edwin Davis (executioner)|Edwin Davis]] at electrocutions at [[Dannemora State Prison]]. Initially his involvement was to change the armatures on the generator in the power house, so that it would temporarily produce enough power to send over high-tension wires to the electric chair elsewhere in the prison complex.
In his memoirs titled "Agent of Death", he recounted that when Davis visited Dannemora to conduct executions, he would be invited to dinner at Elliott's nearby house. This on-the-job training and personal rapport with Davis ultimately stood him in good stead in 1926 when he applied for and accepted the post of "[[State electrician]]", which had just fallen vacant by [[John Hulbert (executioner)|John Hulbert]]. On January 28, 1926, he officiated at his first execution, the double electrocution of Emil Klatt and Luigi Rapito. Although not wearing a mask or a hood, he tried to conceal his identity at first, not revealing his name.<ref>{{Cite news|date=January 29, 1926|title=2 Electrocuted at Sing Sing by New Executioner|work=[[The Saratogian]]|format=PDF|url=https://fultonhistory.com/Newspapers%2021/Saratoga%20Springs%20NY%20Saratogian/Saratoga%20Springs%20NY%20Saratogian%201926/Saratoga%20Springs%20NY%20Saratogian%201926%20-%200280.pdf|access-date=October 28, 2020}}; Elliott is described as being about sixty years old; he had actually had his 52nd birthday the day before the executions.</ref>
For each execution he was paid the same fee of $150 ({{Inflation|US|150|1926|fmt=eq|r=-3}}). When he performed multiple executions on a single day, he would be paid $150 only for the first one and then an extra $50 (${{Inflation|US|50|1926}}) for each additional convict he executed. This was standard practice in New York since John Hulbert had become the second State electrician and was never changed.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Walsh|first=Robert|title=Murders, Mysteries and Misdemeanors in New York|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|year=2019|isbn=978-1-63499-174-2}}</ref> It has been estimated that Elliott earned as much as $46,000 from electrocutions ({{Inflation|US|46000|1926|fmt=eq|r=-3}}).
Elliott is credited with perfecting judicial execution by electrocution, establishing what would come to be known as the "Elliott method". He usually made the first contact at 2000 volts, holding it there for 3 seconds. Then he lowered the voltage to 500 volts for the rest of the first minute; raised it to 2,000 volts for a further 3 seconds; lowered the voltage to 500 volts for the rest of the second minute; then raised it again to 2000 volts for a few seconds before shutting off the power. Elliott recommended that the ideal amperage for executions was around 8 [[Ampere|amps]]. This technique was also used by his two successors.<ref name=":1" />
Elliott's method was intended to render the victim unconscious in an instant with the first massive shock, while the lower voltage heated the vital organs to a point where life was extinguished, without causing undue bodily burning. This oscillating cycle of shocks also seized the heart, causing it to go into [[Cardiac arrest|arrest]] and stop beating. He often carried his own electrodes with him, including a head-piece made from a cut-down football helmet, lined with moist sponge. A keen gardener and a quiet family man, Elliott ran an electrical contracting business and claimed never to have been more than an instrument of the people when he performed an execution.
Despite his calling, he profoundly disagreed with [[capital punishment]], saying that it served no useful purpose. In his memoirs, Elliott wrote "I hope that the day is not far distant when legal slaying, whether by electrocution, hanging, lethal gas, or any other method is outlawed throughout the United States."<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.villagevoice.com/2005-01-18/news/the-last-executioner/full/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130722135915/http://www.villagevoice.com/2005-01-18/news/the-last-executioner/full|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 22, 2013|title=The Last Executioner|last=Gonnerman|first=Jennifer|date=January 18, 2005|work=[[The Village Voice]]|access-date=13 November 2014}}</ref>
He executed 387 people, including [[Sacco and Vanzetti]], [[Ruth Snyder]], [[Irene Schroeder]] and [[Bruno Hauptmann]]. On [[January 1927|January 6, 1927]], he carried out the electrocutions of six inmates in two states.<ref>Craig Brandon, ''The Electric Chair: An Unnatural American History'' (McFarland, 1999) p222; "Six Executed in Electric Chair During One Day", ''Los Angeles Times'', January 8, 1927, p4</ref> Soon after the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti, persons unknown planted a bomb under his house that destroyed his front porch.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1928-05-20 |title=ELLIOTT TO IGNORE BOMBING ATTACK; Executioner Calmly Directs Repairs to His Home, Where HeDeclares He Will Remain.BLAST STILL IS A MYSTERY Absence of Recent Threats MakesHunt More Difficult, but the Police Report 'Progress.' |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1928/05/20/archives/elliott-to-ignore-bombing-attack-executioner-calmly-directs-repairs.html |access-date=2023-04-17 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> For some time later, the State of New York paid for a 24-hour guard.{{Citation needed|date=April 2023}}
===Memoirs and death=== He published his experiences in a book entitled ''Agent of Death''. Shortly after the executions, a newspaper reported that Elliott was haunted by what he had done, and that the specter of Ruth Snyder bedeviled him. It was reported that Elliott required sedation to sleep, and that he was paralyzed with guilt. However, in ''Agent of Death'', Elliott wrote that he was affected by the necessity of electrocuting a woman, but he was not the type of man to lose sleep over having done his job. In the foreword to his memoirs, his co-author, A. R. Beatty commented that Elliott had just approved the final chapters of the book before dying after a short illness.
Elliott died of [[Embolism|coronary embolism]]<ref name=":0" /> and he is buried in the Nassau Knolls Cemetery, [[Port Washington, New York|Port Washington]], New York.
==See also== * [[List of executioners]] * [[List of people executed in New York]]
== References == {{reflist}}
==Further reading== *{{Cite book|last=G. Elliott|first=Robert|title=Agent of Death: The Memoirs of an Executioner|last2=Beatty|first2=A.R.|publisher=[[E.P. Dutton]]|year=1940}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Elliott, Robert G.}} [[Category:1874 births]] [[Category:1939 deaths]] [[Category:American executioners]] [[Category:People from Monroe County, New York]] [[Category:American people of Irish descent]] [[Category:American electricians]] [[Category:Burials at Nassau Knolls Cemetery]]