"Nobody I electrocuted ever held it against me, at least not beforehands. And I've electrocuted some pretty close friends of mine."
The line is from a February 1948 Oklahoman profile so brutally honest about death in the pen it's at times hard to read. In the piece, Oklahoman writer Ray Parr profiled Rich Owens, a "67-year-old executioner, who built Oklahoma's first electric chair in 1915 and watched over it with jealous care."
Owens was bedridden and dying of liver cancer at the time of the interview.
Reporter Graham Brewer first resurrected the article, blogging about it last year. Thursday, business editor Don Mecoy rediscovered it in his ongoing effort to retweet interesting stories from The Oklahoman archives. I just gave it another read.
In vivid prose, the writer lets Owens unapologetically recount career highlights electrocuting the accused and bristles when asked about a botched hanging.
"Well, it is a pleasure to kill some of these dirty so-and-so's. Just think what they have done to people. I never give 'em a thought afterwards. It's just a job of work."
Check out the article below. Just zoom in to read after you pull up the pdf:
Afraid of death? Now Rich Owens has an answer by hithisiseli
Source: Vintage Oklahoma: an executioner, meticulous and proud
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