Eighty-three years ago, Fred Hulsey and his father, William — both farmers from Polk County — were scheduled to be executed for triple murder in the first and only father-son execution in Georgia history.
Hours before the execution in his death cell, 31-year-old Fred attempted suicide and confessed for the first time that he was the sole slayer of three men and that his father's only crime was helping put the bodies in an abandoned well.
Gov. Richard B. Russell Jr. ordered that the executions proceed.
Read the full, original story following the executions:
The story below originally appeared in The Atlanta Constitution on Nov. 5, 1932.
MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga., Nov. 4 — (AP) — A father and son were electrocuted today for murder, the father protesting innocense and the son, after a suicide attempt, confessing sole guilt and pleading: "Don't kill my dad for something I did myself."
The dramatic confession of the son, 31-year-old Fred Hulsey came in the death cell after he had slashed his throat and left wrist with a safety razor blade. The suicide attempt came while the prison chaplain was reading Scriptures to Fred and his father, William, 58.
"I am the only one responsible," shouted Fred, hysterically. "My father only helped me to dispose of the bodies in order to help me out of my trouble." Guards prevented him from further injuring himself.
The Hulseys were convicted of slaying Clifford Jones after a poker brawl on their farm near Rockmart in north Georgia in June 1930, and were indicted, but not tried, for killing two other men.
Fred Hulsey admitted today he slew Jones and Lige Harper and Ernest McCullough and said the father's only part in the crime was in helping him put the bodies in an abandoned well.
The suicide attempt — unexplained at the prison where razor blades are barred in the death cell — held up the execution for nearly four horus while prison authories consulted Governor Richard B. Russell Jr.
The governor, in North Carolina for an address on behalf of the democratic national ticket, was reached by telephone and ordered that the execution proceed if young Hulsey's wounds were not considered fatal.
Not long afterward the son, pale and nervous, his throat and wrist swathed in bandages, was led to the death chamber. His clothing bore the stains of his suicide attempt.
He sat down in the electric chair and addressed the small group of witnesses, consisting of prison attaches and newspapermen: "I'll meet you all in heaven. I am glad I confessed this crime before I died."
Then he turned to the prison chaplain, Dr. E.C. Atkins and said: "Please tell my father that I'll meet him in heaven. I wish you would take the 50 cents in my pocket and send it to my little girl."
Physicians said that despite the razor wounds, his pulse was normal. The shock which killed young Hulsey was the shortest ever administered in Georgia — 15 seconds. The shock was applied at 1:48 p.m., eastern time. At 1:53 he was dead.
The body was removed. A big door clanged shut behind the father as he left the death cell for the short march to the execution chamber.
"The Lord is with me," he said simply, as he sat in the chair. "I am innocent of this crime, but I was there when it happened."
Jones, Harper and McCullough were found by relatives the day after they had been killed, each by a bullet in the head. Two of them had been shot in the back of the head. The relatives found the scene of the card game, with a number of empty beer bottles nearby. There were bloodstains near the scene of the game in the woods on the Hulsey farm. Tracks of a wagon and mule led the searchers to the well.
The death shock was applied to the father at 2:01. Four minutes later he was dead. Thus ended the first execution of father and son in Georgia.
The men were convicted on circumstantial evidence, but the state supreme court declared it was sufficient.
The principal witness for the state was L.E. McCullough, a taxi driver, who said he drove the three men who were slain and Fred Hulsey to the Hulsey place. The wagon tracks and a patch of mule hair on the ground where the mule drawing the wagon and its cargo had stumbled featured in the testimony.
The Hulseys blamed L.E. McCullough (not related to the slain man) for the death, but McCullough established an alibi and testified for the state.
The executions had been scheduled for 10 a.m. after Governor Russell had spent most of yesterday examining records in the case. He refused to commute the sentences, however, and left late last night for a political rally at High Point, N.C.
Hulsey's suicide attempt today brought an order from Ike Hay, the governor's executive secretary, to hold up the executions until he had communicated with the governor and until the extent of Hulsey's wounds could be determined.
An uncle and an aunt of young Hulsey were in Milledgeville but did not witness the execution.
Prison officials said the bodies of the two men were claimed by Mrs. William Hulsey and were taken from here this afternoon by a Cartersville undertaking firm. The funeral services, it is understood, are to be at Aragon, near Rockmart, probably on Sunday afternoon.
The suicide attempt was the first made by a prisoner in the death cell here awaiting the chair. The confession was the first one publicly made the son, naming himself as the slayer and the father as an accessory. Both pleaded not guilty at the trial. The father confirmed the son's confession.
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