On this day, April 8, in 1899, Martha Place became the first woman to be executed in the electric chair. She was sent to Old Sparky in New York’s Sing Sing prison after she force-fed acid to her stepdaughter and smothered her.
William Place married Martha to help raise his teenage daughter Ida, but Martha was jealous of the girl. William called the police once to their Brooklyn home to arrest Martha for threatening to kill Ida.
On Feb. 7, 1898, Martha used an ax to chase her husband from their home. Police found Martha passed out from the gas from burners seeping into the house. Upstairs they discovered 17-year-old Ida. She was bleeding from the mouth, and her eyes were disfigured from the acid.
— Scott McCabe
