The Solemn Sentence of Death: Capital Punishment in Connecticut

Chapter 5: The Menace of the Criminal Class, 1880–1929

132 5 THE MENACE OF THE CRIMINAL CLASS 1880–1929 ✴ There was no hitch, no blunder, the judicial killing was a scientific piece of work. Hartford Daily Courant, May 14, 1880, on the hanging of Edwin Hoyt You [the state of Connecticut] execute only some poor, unfortunate Italian, negro [sic], or Irishman without friends and without money. Ratcliffe Hicks, March 16, 1893 This hanging men is bad business, all around, but so is murdering; and the purpose is to make those, who might earn the same penalty, stop and think twice before taking that unpleasant risk. Hartford Courant, Dec. 5, 1894, on the hanging of John Cronin By 1900, a dynamic corporate capitalism profoundly dominated the United States. Connecticut was at the heart of the urban and industrial transformation that Civil War spending in the “munitions state” had brought to fruition . Huge factories employed a vast number of workers. Textiles—cotton, wool, silk, and thread—were concentrated in the eastern part of the state and were the largest industry in Connecticut. Hartford, made the sole capital in 1875, dubbed itself the insurance capital of the world. New Haven, the former dual capital, had a variety of manufacturing concerns. Weapons makers in several areas dominated the national market. Large, well-financed corporations outstripped smaller, family businesses. There was also a demographic shift as the importance of agriculture declined. Although by 1890 five times as many people lived in cities than in small towns, a rotten borough system of skewed representation allowed outpaced villages to dominate the legislature. Military production during World War I furthered industrialization. By 1920, a majority of residents lived in cities, and the population of New Haven and Bridgeport each topped 100,000. Hartford had some of the worst slums in the United States for a city of its size, and THE MENACE OF THE CRIMINAL CLASS, 1880–1929 133 throughout the state, significant blighted areas contrasted with smaller enclaves of wealth.1 Immigrants fleeing poverty, political instability, and anti-Semitism in southern and eastern Europe provided much of the burgeoning, low-wage labor force after 1880. The changing composition of the population was dramatic and a source of cultural tension. In 1910, almost one of three state residents was foreign born. By the eve of World War I, 70 percent of the total population of 1,114,756 were first- and second-generation immigrants. In 1920, 10 percent of the population of Waterbury had been born in Italy; at the same time, 18,000 eastern European Jews resided in the Hartford region; and in 1930, one-quarter of the people of New Britain were of Polish ancestry . By 1920, residents born in Italy numbered almost twice that of any other foreign-born group.2 The epic story of the uprooted is well known, but what is not familiar is that the “new immigrants” figured predominately among those judicially executed as well as among the victims of murder. The actual number of people hanged reached an all-time peak in the decades bracketing the new century. The capital code was not substantially altered, and due process of law was observed. The unsettling conditions of urbanization, industrialization , and population movement, however, often inordinately affected newcomers, outsiders, and people on the move. Those on the margins of a capitalistic society marked by extremes of wealth and power were disproportionately enmeshed in the criminal justice system. Old world traditions did not blend neatly with new-world realities. Violence is shocking, often inexplicable, and not always reducible to social and economic circumstances or ethnic tension. Nonetheless, stressful situations, difficult living conditions, and the ready availability of handguns facilitated homicides and first-degree murder convictions as never before or ever since. Authorities worried about the menace of what they termed the criminal class and were attracted to eugenic explanations of evil. In a rationalization of state power, legislators in 1893 mandated that executions occur after the midnight hour before only a limited number of observers in the fortified state prison. Although newspapers reported the graphic details on the front page, the actual execution procedure was isolated and secretive. A new mechanized gallows rendered dozens of hangings routine and efficient, befitting the machine age. 134 CHAPTER 5 The Legal Context The capital code did not on its face single out immigrants or any other group. Judicial fairness remained the ideal, although social circumstances skewed the purview of criminal justice. The General Assembly...