On this day, March 3, in 1955, Gerald Gallego became the first person to die in the gas chamber in Mississippi. Gallego’s son would grow up to be a lot meaner, killing at least 10 women with the help of his wife.
The elder Gallego’s execution didn’t go smoothly. Gallego, who had killed two police officers, cough and choked on a cloud of cyanide poisoning. After 45 minutes, prison officials fixed the problem and Gallego finally died. Gallego Jr. never met his father. His mother told him that the old man had died in an accident. Gallego Jr. and his wife were credited with killing 10 women, mostly teenagers, whom they kept as sex slaves. Like his father, Gallego Jr. was sentenced to death, but he died of rectal cancer in 2002 at a Nevada prison.
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— Scott McCabe
