WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:02.000 The defense. 00:02.000 --> 00:07.000 Tonight, we present to you, Jackie Cooper, as star of The Clock and the Rope, a defense 00:07.000 --> 00:14.000 play produced, edited and directed by William Spear. 00:14.000 --> 00:19.000 Would you like to hear the old story about the innocent man facing execution and his 00:19.000 --> 00:24.000 last minute attempt to kill his wife? 00:24.000 --> 00:34.000 Would you like to hear the old story about the innocent man facing execution and his last minute attempts to get a pardon, how it feels when he doesn't get it? 00:34.000 --> 00:37.000 Well, I can tell you all about it, because that's my story. 00:37.000 --> 00:40.000 There's a couple of different twists to it, of course. 00:40.000 --> 00:42.000 There always are. 00:42.000 --> 00:44.000 For one thing, it happened to me. 00:44.000 --> 00:47.000 And now, I keep away from people. 00:47.000 --> 00:50.000 I keep away from cities and buildings. 00:50.000 --> 00:55.000 Buildings with the cells they call rooms and doors that don't always open. 00:55.000 --> 00:57.000 I never button my collar. 00:57.000 --> 00:59.000 You'll find out why. 00:59.000 --> 01:02.000 I earn my living as a guide for hunting parties. 01:02.000 --> 01:08.000 Me, who couldn't find my way across the city park without asking a cop for directions. 01:08.000 --> 01:10.000 I never sleep indoors. 01:10.000 --> 01:12.000 I can't. 01:12.000 --> 01:14.000 And I can't stand clocks. 01:14.000 --> 01:18.000 Most of all, I can't stand clocks. 01:18.000 --> 01:21.000 It happened so fast. 01:21.000 --> 01:23.000 I told them it wasn't murder. 01:23.000 --> 01:24.000 It was self-defense. 01:24.000 --> 01:26.000 Involuntary self-defense. 01:26.000 --> 01:29.000 You know, like putting up your arms to protect yourself. 01:29.000 --> 01:32.000 But it didn't work out that way in court. 01:32.000 --> 01:36.000 That's the other different twist I told you about. 01:36.000 --> 01:38.000 They convicted me. 01:38.000 --> 01:40.000 They sentenced me to be hanged. 01:40.000 --> 01:54.000 And they hanged me. 01:54.000 --> 01:55.000 I was night man. 01:55.000 --> 02:00.000 Sell a little gas, do the rough strip down for some repairs that had to be done the next day. 02:00.000 --> 02:03.000 Take care of any tranch and overnight parking. 02:03.000 --> 02:07.000 Then these girls started dropping in for gas every other night or so. 02:07.000 --> 02:08.000 Late. 02:08.000 --> 02:11.000 I liked her style, but I was too shy to say anything. 02:11.000 --> 02:13.000 And I guess she figured it. 02:13.000 --> 02:19.000 She was stiff with a sort of little smile half turned in her teeth to watch me when I filled the tank. 02:19.000 --> 02:23.000 Then she'd pay me and pull away with a funny look in her eyes. 02:23.000 --> 02:25.000 As if she was getting a kick out of the way I acted. 02:25.000 --> 02:29.000 Then one night, instead of pulling away, when she paid me, she spoke. 02:29.000 --> 02:31.000 Aw, come on. Open up. 02:31.000 --> 02:32.000 What? 02:32.000 --> 02:33.000 Say something. 02:33.000 --> 02:35.000 I've been here 20 times. 02:35.000 --> 02:37.000 You can say a word or two, Panky. 02:37.000 --> 02:39.000 Hello, we're at the nice night. 02:39.000 --> 02:40.000 I didn't. 02:40.000 --> 02:43.000 Well, I didn't know that you wanted me to. 02:43.000 --> 02:45.000 You're a funny fellow. 02:45.000 --> 02:48.000 I didn't look like I didn't want you to, did I? 02:48.000 --> 02:51.000 Don't I know my looks anymore? 02:51.000 --> 02:52.000 Oh, sure. 02:52.000 --> 02:55.000 Tell me, did I hear somebody call you a hunk the other night? 02:55.000 --> 02:56.000 I guess you did. 02:56.000 --> 02:58.000 My name is Henry. Henry Gilford. 02:58.000 --> 03:00.000 Did your girl call you a hunk? 03:00.000 --> 03:02.000 Well, haven't you got a girl? 03:02.000 --> 03:04.000 No, steady girl, if that's what you mean. 03:04.000 --> 03:08.000 What would you be doing with a steady girl, working here every night? 03:08.000 --> 03:11.000 Oh, I get one night off, go to her dance or something. 03:11.000 --> 03:13.000 Oh, yes. 03:13.000 --> 03:14.000 Sure, I... 03:14.000 --> 03:16.000 Hey, say, do you like to dance? 03:16.000 --> 03:18.000 I have, Henry. 03:18.000 --> 03:20.000 Well, I'm off tomorrow night. 03:20.000 --> 03:22.000 You ever go to the Arcadia? 03:22.000 --> 03:25.000 They've got a good band there. I forget who it is this week. 03:25.000 --> 03:27.000 Oh, I'm sorry. Tomorrow night isn't my night off. 03:27.000 --> 03:28.000 Oh. 03:28.000 --> 03:31.000 But I get off at midnight tonight. 03:31.000 --> 03:34.000 And see, the Arcadia closes at midnight. 03:34.000 --> 03:36.000 All the big dance places close at midnight. 03:36.000 --> 03:40.000 Well, you don't have to have a big place, do you? 03:40.000 --> 03:43.000 Oh, no. Oh, no. 03:43.000 --> 03:46.000 No, there's the Owl Inn out on Tapscott Avenue. 03:46.000 --> 03:48.000 They run late and have a pretty good little band 03:48.000 --> 03:50.000 and the booze and everything. 03:50.000 --> 03:51.000 That would be fine. 03:51.000 --> 03:53.000 Well, I could pick you up at your job. 03:53.000 --> 03:55.000 No, no, I, um... 03:55.000 --> 03:58.000 I'm way at the other end of town and I have to drive my car back anyway. 03:58.000 --> 04:01.000 Suppose I meet you at the Owl. I'll be there in a little after midnight. 04:01.000 --> 04:02.000 I'll be there. 04:02.000 --> 04:03.000 Okay, see you. 04:03.000 --> 04:05.000 Oh, say, what's your name? 04:05.000 --> 04:07.000 It's a long night. Goodbye. 04:15.000 --> 04:17.000 That next night around 11.30, 04:17.000 --> 04:20.000 I caught the trolley going out along Tapscott Avenue. 04:20.000 --> 04:22.000 The mortarman was old Steve Hoffman. 04:22.000 --> 04:26.000 He had known me since I was a kid and he'd written me about my new gray suit, 04:26.000 --> 04:28.000 especially by wanting to get off at the Owl Inn. 04:28.000 --> 04:31.000 Said I was stepping out in fast company. 04:31.000 --> 04:34.000 We got there in about 20 minutes and I started up the driveway, 04:34.000 --> 04:37.000 kind of thrilled at the idea of a midnight date. 04:37.000 --> 04:40.000 I was just starting up the steps at the inn when I heard voices 04:40.000 --> 04:42.000 coming from a grove of trees to one side. 04:42.000 --> 04:43.000 Nobody, I tell you. 04:43.000 --> 04:45.000 Don't give me that stuff. 04:45.000 --> 04:47.000 I followed you all the way out there. Who you meet? 04:47.000 --> 04:48.000 Nobody. 04:48.000 --> 04:50.000 Okay, for giving me that, you'll get bit. 04:50.000 --> 04:51.000 Ow! 04:51.000 --> 04:52.000 Get back here. 04:52.000 --> 04:53.000 Hey, hey, what's this? 04:53.000 --> 04:55.000 I told you this is the guy you're gonna meet. Hans Weld. 04:55.000 --> 04:56.000 I'll take care of both of you now. 04:56.000 --> 04:57.000 Hey, what's going on anyway? 04:57.000 --> 05:01.000 What did you hit him for, Joe? He's got nothing to do with it. 05:01.000 --> 05:03.000 Get up, Hank. Run. This guy's crazy. 05:03.000 --> 05:05.000 Crazy? Why don't you call somebody? I'll handle him till he comes. 05:05.000 --> 05:07.000 No, no, you get out of here. Now run. 05:07.000 --> 05:09.000 You want more, huh? Well, I got it right here for you. 05:09.000 --> 05:11.000 Get the black... Run, Hank! 05:11.000 --> 05:12.000 No, you don't. 05:12.000 --> 05:15.000 Hey, now let go of it. No, you don't. You don't grab this. 05:15.000 --> 05:23.000 You got him, Hank. Hit him again. Hit him. Hit him again. 05:25.000 --> 05:27.000 Well, I did it, I guess. 05:27.000 --> 05:29.000 Say, who... who is he? 05:29.000 --> 05:31.000 He would have done worse for you. 05:31.000 --> 05:33.000 We used to go together. 05:33.000 --> 05:35.000 I didn't know you had a steady fella. 05:35.000 --> 05:37.000 I thought when we made our date... 05:37.000 --> 05:38.000 You didn't ask me. 05:38.000 --> 05:40.000 Besides, we were breaking up. 05:40.000 --> 05:42.000 He had no right to interfere. 05:42.000 --> 05:44.000 Well, what do we do now? 05:44.000 --> 05:46.000 What do you mean about him? 05:46.000 --> 05:48.000 You tell me, Chloe. I'll take care of him. 05:48.000 --> 05:50.000 You mean, leave him here with you? 05:50.000 --> 05:52.000 Well, he'll... Please go. 05:52.000 --> 05:54.000 There'll be more trouble for you, you two. 05:54.000 --> 05:56.000 Go ahead, Hank. I'm gonna leave here right away, too. 05:56.000 --> 05:58.000 He'll be all right. 06:03.000 --> 06:06.000 But he wasn't all right. He was dead. 06:06.000 --> 06:08.000 I knew about it hardly two hours later. 06:08.000 --> 06:10.000 No, she didn't come and tell me. 06:10.000 --> 06:12.000 The police came and got him. 06:12.000 --> 06:14.000 And they didn't learn about me from her, either. 06:14.000 --> 06:16.000 They didn't know anything about her, 06:16.000 --> 06:18.000 and they acted like they didn't want to know. 06:18.000 --> 06:20.000 Why did you walk home? 06:20.000 --> 06:22.000 You rode out there on the trolley. Why didn't you ride back? 06:22.000 --> 06:24.000 Well, I just wanted to think, that's all. 06:24.000 --> 06:26.000 Sure. Because you weren't thinking about 06:26.000 --> 06:28.000 how maybe the motorman wouldn't remember taking you out there 06:28.000 --> 06:30.000 if you didn't ride back. 06:30.000 --> 06:33.000 No, why would I do that? I've known old Steve Hoffman all my life. 06:33.000 --> 06:35.000 Is that how you found out? 06:35.000 --> 06:36.000 You're not very smart. 06:36.000 --> 06:38.000 I'm not trying to be smart. 06:38.000 --> 06:40.000 Okay. So you hit him in self-defense 06:40.000 --> 06:42.000 and to save a girl. Now, what's her name? 06:42.000 --> 06:44.000 Her name? 06:44.000 --> 06:46.000 I never got it. 06:46.000 --> 06:48.000 She didn't tell me. 06:48.000 --> 06:50.000 You had a date with a girl and you didn't even know what her name was. 06:50.000 --> 06:52.000 Well, yes. I asked her. 06:52.000 --> 06:54.000 I've seen her often, but she didn't tell me. 06:54.000 --> 06:56.000 Are you sure there was a girl? 06:56.000 --> 06:58.000 Of course. Who would I have the date with? 06:58.000 --> 07:00.000 Maybe just with the guy you killed. 07:00.000 --> 07:02.000 I never met him before. I don't even know him. 07:02.000 --> 07:04.000 You just don't know anything, do you? 07:04.000 --> 07:06.000 Well, I'll ask you a very simple question. 07:06.000 --> 07:08.000 I'm sure you can answer this one. 07:08.000 --> 07:11.000 I'll try. How much money did you take off the man you murdered? 07:11.000 --> 07:12.000 How much? 07:12.000 --> 07:14.000 Yeah, how much. And where is it? 07:14.000 --> 07:16.000 His pockets were turned inside out. 07:16.000 --> 07:18.000 You went from self-defense to help yourself. 07:26.000 --> 07:28.000 They pushed me around some after that. 07:28.000 --> 07:31.000 They'd take me to court and then back to myself. 07:31.000 --> 07:34.000 Half the time I didn't know what was going on. 07:34.000 --> 07:37.000 They gave me a lawyer, Mr. Hall, Bailey Hall. 07:37.000 --> 07:39.000 He'd do the talking. 07:39.000 --> 07:42.000 He kept asking for things like reduced bail, 07:42.000 --> 07:44.000 time for further investigation, 07:44.000 --> 07:47.000 continuances to find witnesses. 07:47.000 --> 07:49.000 Just sort of stalling all the time. 07:49.000 --> 07:51.000 I don't know why. 07:51.000 --> 07:53.000 I told him I didn't have the money for any bail. 07:53.000 --> 07:55.000 And witnesses. 07:55.000 --> 07:57.000 There was only one I wanted, that girl. 07:57.000 --> 07:59.000 But he kept on. 07:59.000 --> 08:01.000 I was trying to hold up things. 08:01.000 --> 08:03.000 And one day he told me I'd been indicted. 08:03.000 --> 08:05.000 I knew what that meant, Harold. 08:05.000 --> 08:07.000 It meant I had to go in trial. 08:07.000 --> 08:09.000 For murder. 08:09.000 --> 08:11.000 That's bad, boy, bad. 08:11.000 --> 08:14.000 I've done all I could to delay indictment and trial. 08:14.000 --> 08:17.000 And I hope that something will turn up, but we're in for it now. 08:17.000 --> 08:20.000 I wish they'd give me something more to work on. 08:20.000 --> 08:21.000 What do you mean? 08:21.000 --> 08:23.000 This girl, you can't even name. 08:23.000 --> 08:25.000 I can't go into a court with just that. 08:25.000 --> 08:27.000 The police feel certain there never was a girl. 08:27.000 --> 08:29.000 And there's no trace of her anywhere. 08:29.000 --> 08:31.000 Well, maybe she'll show up. 08:31.000 --> 08:33.000 My boy, you've got a lot to learn. 08:33.000 --> 08:35.000 Mr. Hall, that's all I know. 08:35.000 --> 08:37.000 I can't help it. 08:37.000 --> 08:42.000 You never mentioned the girl and just claimed self-defense or a fight. 08:42.000 --> 08:46.000 The girl thing, that's so bad, it makes your whole defense fooling. 08:46.000 --> 08:49.000 Good Lord, boy, if you made up a girl, why didn't you make up a name? 08:49.000 --> 08:51.000 Look, I've been all through that with the police. 08:51.000 --> 08:55.000 Now, if you're going to talk that way, too, maybe we'd better forget the whole thing. 08:55.000 --> 08:57.000 Maybe they'll give me another attorney, Harold. 08:57.000 --> 08:59.000 None at all, for I care. 08:59.000 --> 09:00.000 Easy, boy, easy. 09:00.000 --> 09:05.000 I'm sorry I popped off, but it isn't a new attorney you need. 09:05.000 --> 09:06.000 It's a new story. 09:11.000 --> 09:12.000 That's right. 09:12.000 --> 09:15.000 Guilford rode out to the inn that night in my trolley. 09:15.000 --> 09:17.000 It was on the fourth or the fifth. 09:17.000 --> 09:19.000 Face the jury, please, and talk louder. 09:19.000 --> 09:21.000 Oh, louder? 09:21.000 --> 09:25.000 I say I took Guilford to the inn that night. 09:25.000 --> 09:28.000 It was about 10 after midnight. 09:28.000 --> 09:30.000 He got out and started for the inn. 09:30.000 --> 09:34.000 Did you notice anyone else around, any girl, for instance? 09:34.000 --> 09:36.000 A girl? 09:36.000 --> 09:39.000 No, no, nobody else. 09:39.000 --> 09:40.000 That'll be all, thank you. 09:40.000 --> 09:42.000 The defense may have the witness. 09:46.000 --> 09:51.000 And as soon as we started to talk to Guilford, he confessed to spiking the blows. 09:51.000 --> 09:57.000 He talked about doing it in self-defense and about a girl he had a date with who witnessed the fight. 09:57.000 --> 10:01.000 Have you been able to trace this girl whose existence is claimed by the defendant? 10:01.000 --> 10:02.000 No. 10:02.000 --> 10:03.000 No trace of her at all? 10:03.000 --> 10:05.000 No, sir, no trace of her at all. 10:10.000 --> 10:14.000 And then we come to the actual evidence, gentlemen of the jury. 10:14.000 --> 10:16.000 Where do we get the evidence? 10:16.000 --> 10:18.000 From the witnesses. 10:18.000 --> 10:20.000 And who is the state's principal witness? 10:20.000 --> 10:23.000 None other than the defendant himself. 10:23.000 --> 10:26.000 But the defendant can prove his story. 10:26.000 --> 10:28.000 He has a witness. 10:28.000 --> 10:30.000 The girl who saw it all. 10:30.000 --> 10:32.000 The girl he saved from a bad deal. 10:32.000 --> 10:40.000 Would any girl be so heartless as to leave such a benefactor in the lurch when just a word would save him? 10:40.000 --> 10:42.000 Why doesn't she appear? 10:42.000 --> 10:44.000 Why isn't she found? 10:44.000 --> 10:47.000 No, there is no trace of her. 10:47.000 --> 10:50.000 Not even a small size note. 10:50.000 --> 10:57.000 In other words, she is behaving exactly as you would expect someone to behave who is not real. 10:57.000 --> 11:01.000 But just a figment of a desperate man's imagination. 11:07.000 --> 11:09.000 The defendant will rise. 11:10.000 --> 11:12.000 Gentlemen of the jury, have you reached the verdict? 11:12.000 --> 11:13.000 We have. 11:13.000 --> 11:14.000 What is your verdict? 11:14.000 --> 11:20.000 We the jury find the defendant Henry Guilford guilty as charged of murder in the first degree. 11:20.000 --> 11:21.000 I... 11:21.000 --> 11:50.000 Yes. 11:50.000 --> 11:54.000 My boss at the garage and the fellows who worked their days chipped in some money. 11:54.000 --> 12:01.000 I had an uncle in West Virginia who sent Mr. Hall $50 in cash and a promissory note for another $50. 12:01.000 --> 12:04.000 And I guess Mr. Hall put up the money himself for his spending. 12:04.000 --> 12:09.000 Anyway, he kept appealing the case all the way up to the state Supreme Court. 12:09.000 --> 12:11.000 But it didn't do any good. 12:11.000 --> 12:15.000 Kept coming back to the original decision sustained, Mr. Hall said. 12:15.000 --> 12:19.000 All this time the court had kept changing the date. 12:19.000 --> 12:21.000 The date I was supposed to be hanged. 12:21.000 --> 12:25.000 Now all of a sudden I knew there weren't going to be any more changes. 12:25.000 --> 12:28.000 The last date set was it. 12:28.000 --> 12:31.000 I think I started to suffocate right then. 12:31.000 --> 12:35.000 There was something growing in my throat that wouldn't let me breathe. 12:35.000 --> 12:41.000 The evening of the next day, McGill, your deputy warden, came into my cell with a couple of guards. 12:41.000 --> 12:43.000 He told me I was moving. 12:43.000 --> 12:44.000 I knew where. 12:44.000 --> 12:46.000 It was down on the main floor. 12:46.000 --> 12:48.000 A row of only three cells. 12:48.000 --> 12:50.000 It was the last stop. 12:50.000 --> 12:52.000 Just row. 12:58.000 --> 13:03.000 They have a team of two guards who live right in the cell with you the last few days. 13:03.000 --> 13:06.000 One time a prison breaks down and shows a human touch. 13:06.000 --> 13:12.000 McGill, or else they just want to make sure you don't go ahead and carry out the sentence on yourself. 13:12.000 --> 13:15.000 Anyway, whatever it was, I was grateful. 13:15.000 --> 13:17.000 Because now I was lonely. 13:17.000 --> 13:19.000 I was afraid. 13:19.000 --> 13:23.000 Not afraid like a man, but afraid the way a child is afraid. 13:23.000 --> 13:25.000 I was going someplace. 13:25.000 --> 13:26.000 The last place. 13:26.000 --> 13:28.000 And I was going alone. 13:28.000 --> 13:32.000 The last hour of the day. 13:43.000 --> 13:47.000 The thing you feel most the last hours of the time. 13:47.000 --> 13:48.000 A clock. 13:48.000 --> 13:55.000 Remembering how often you wished it would hurry so you could get off work or out of school or see your girl or go fishing. 13:55.000 --> 13:59.000 You remember a million hours like that when six hours is all you got left. 13:59.000 --> 14:02.000 Outside, you know, they're watching the clock too. 14:02.000 --> 14:05.000 Not like you are, but they're watching it. 14:05.000 --> 14:08.000 All the usual people concerned with an execution. 14:08.000 --> 14:10.000 Doing the usual things. 14:10.000 --> 14:13.000 The lawyer, the warden, the governor maybe. 14:13.000 --> 14:16.000 Newspaper men, guards, the executioner. 14:16.000 --> 14:19.000 I know what every one of them was doing as they watched the clock that night. 14:19.000 --> 14:20.000 They told me afterwards. 14:20.000 --> 14:22.000 And now I'll never forget it. 14:22.000 --> 14:25.000 Clock all over the state. 14:25.000 --> 14:27.000 Ticking away my life. 14:42.000 --> 14:44.000 You ought to get some sleep warden. 14:44.000 --> 14:46.000 It's only five hours away. 14:46.000 --> 14:49.000 Yes, I know, McGill, I know. 14:49.000 --> 14:52.000 I wish I could lose this pain in my chest. 14:52.000 --> 14:55.000 I think I'll lie down here on the couch for a little while. 14:55.000 --> 14:56.000 Yes, do that. 14:56.000 --> 14:58.000 When shall I call you, warden? 14:58.000 --> 15:01.000 Oh, make it an hour beforehand. 15:01.000 --> 15:03.000 Five a.m. 15:03.000 --> 15:05.000 Hello? 15:05.000 --> 15:07.000 This is Bailey Hall. 15:07.000 --> 15:10.000 Yes, I'm beautiful this evening. 15:10.000 --> 15:12.000 You're who? 15:12.000 --> 15:14.000 Where have you been all this time? 15:14.000 --> 15:16.000 What? 15:16.000 --> 15:19.000 Look, you're not dead. 15:19.000 --> 15:21.000 You're dead. 15:21.000 --> 15:23.000 You're dead. 15:23.000 --> 15:25.000 I'm dead. 15:25.000 --> 15:27.000 I'm dead. 15:27.000 --> 15:29.000 I'm dead. 15:29.000 --> 15:31.000 I'm dead. 15:31.000 --> 15:35.000 Hey, hey, look, you're not just some crook that's after pubs. 15:35.000 --> 15:37.000 I know, I know it's for sick this morning. 15:37.000 --> 15:38.000 Where are you? 15:38.000 --> 15:39.000 All right, wait for me. 15:39.000 --> 15:40.000 I'll be right down. 15:40.000 --> 15:42.000 We've got about two hours. 15:51.000 --> 15:54.000 I take my reputation on, Governor. 15:54.000 --> 15:56.000 This is the girl. 15:56.000 --> 15:58.000 At least it deserves a stay of execution. 15:58.000 --> 16:00.000 It's true, sir. I swear it's true. 16:00.000 --> 16:01.000 I've been in the East. 16:01.000 --> 16:03.000 I just haven't heard about it till tonight, 16:03.000 --> 16:05.000 but it's just as East had it was. 16:05.000 --> 16:07.000 And the money that was taken out of the dead man's pocket? 16:07.000 --> 16:08.000 I took it. 16:08.000 --> 16:10.000 I need it with my head. I'll be right, kid. 16:10.000 --> 16:12.000 He's been my husband. 16:12.000 --> 16:13.000 Very well. Richard. 16:13.000 --> 16:14.000 Yes, Governor? 16:14.000 --> 16:17.000 Type out a stay of execution on the Guilford case for three weeks. 16:17.000 --> 16:19.000 Bring it in and out. Sign it and you can take it down. 16:19.000 --> 16:22.000 All right. You'd better phone the warden to make sure, though, Governor. 16:22.000 --> 16:30.000 That boy's only got about a half hour left. 16:40.000 --> 16:42.000 Warden's office. 16:42.000 --> 16:45.000 Yes, this is Warden Barnes. 16:45.000 --> 16:47.000 Huh? 16:47.000 --> 16:49.000 Oh, yes, Governor. 16:49.000 --> 16:51.000 Young Guilford? 16:51.000 --> 16:53.000 Oh, you don't say so. 16:53.000 --> 16:56.000 Why, that's splendid, Governor. Splendid. 16:56.000 --> 16:59.000 Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I'll let them know right away. 16:59.000 --> 17:03.000 Yes, sir. Oh, McGill. McGill. McGill. 17:10.000 --> 17:12.000 I guess, Warden. 17:12.000 --> 17:14.000 Harry, Jack, come here, quick. 17:14.000 --> 17:15.000 What's the matter? 17:15.000 --> 17:17.000 Something happened to the warden. Help me get him up on the couch. 17:17.000 --> 17:19.000 Yeah. 17:19.000 --> 17:21.000 Looks like a stroke. 17:21.000 --> 17:23.000 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Call the doctor, will you? 17:23.000 --> 17:24.000 Sure. Hey, the phone's off the hook. 17:24.000 --> 17:26.000 Oh, mind that. Call the doctor. 17:26.000 --> 17:28.000 Yeah, must have been a strain of his execution. 17:28.000 --> 17:29.000 I think he kind of liked the kid. 17:29.000 --> 17:32.000 Yeah. 5.30. 17:32.000 --> 17:35.000 Well, I'll have to take over for the execution. 17:35.000 --> 17:38.000 Gentlemen. Gentlemen. 17:38.000 --> 17:40.000 Now 10 minutes to 6. 17:40.000 --> 17:44.000 In a few moments, you will be admitted to the ground floor of Blockhouse A 17:44.000 --> 17:46.000 where the scaffold has been erected 17:46.000 --> 17:48.000 and where the execution, which you are to witness as 17:48.000 --> 17:52.000 newspaper men and members of the medical profession, will take place. 17:52.000 --> 17:58.000 We'll find rows of banknotes and 17:58.000 --> 18:05.000 please take your seats quietly in any of the rows except the first, 18:05.000 --> 18:09.000 which has been reserved for members of the medical examining committee. 18:09.000 --> 18:12.000 We ask you to cooperate with us in our duties 18:12.000 --> 18:16.000 and to respect the solemnity of the occasion by moving quietly, 18:16.000 --> 18:20.000 refraining from any loud conversation from the moment you enter until you leave. 18:20.000 --> 18:28.000 That's all. Thank you. 18:40.000 --> 18:44.000 The minister was reading from the Bible when 18:44.000 --> 18:50.000 I knew it was time they were coming for me. 18:54.000 --> 18:56.000 This was it then. 18:56.000 --> 18:58.000 There was a group of guards. 18:58.000 --> 19:00.000 The deputy warden was with them. 19:00.000 --> 19:02.000 They opened my cell door. 19:02.000 --> 19:04.000 One of the guards came straight up to me. 19:04.000 --> 19:08.000 He was carrying a leather strap with a big buckle on it. 19:08.000 --> 19:09.000 I stood up. 19:09.000 --> 19:12.000 I saw them strapping my arms behind me. 19:12.000 --> 19:17.000 The minister stopped reading for a moment to say something. 19:17.000 --> 19:19.000 We'll go now, Guilford. 19:19.000 --> 19:21.000 I started to say something to the deputy, 19:21.000 --> 19:27.000 but he nodded his head at the men and we started to move. 19:35.000 --> 19:39.000 The two guards who had been in the cell with me stood back 19:39.000 --> 19:41.000 and one of them reached over to me, 19:41.000 --> 19:43.000 and he put his hand on my shoulder for a second. 19:43.000 --> 19:45.000 I tried to say goodbye. 19:45.000 --> 19:49.000 I walked and realized I couldn't breathe very deeply, though I wanted to. 19:49.000 --> 19:52.000 Just short breaths were all I could take. 19:52.000 --> 19:54.000 The deputy turned around and looked at me. 19:54.000 --> 19:56.000 He seemed nervous. 19:56.000 --> 19:57.000 That bothered me. 19:57.000 --> 19:59.000 I wish he wasn't so nervous. 19:59.000 --> 20:01.000 Then we got to a door in the corner. 20:01.000 --> 20:03.000 Through that, then another door. 20:03.000 --> 20:05.000 That was already open. 20:05.000 --> 20:06.000 I walked through. 20:06.000 --> 20:08.000 I was in a room full of men. 20:08.000 --> 20:11.000 But my eyes looked at something else. 20:11.000 --> 20:13.000 They were the steps just ahead of me. 20:13.000 --> 20:16.000 Untainted wooden steps. 20:16.000 --> 20:18.000 They led up to the platform. 20:18.000 --> 20:25.000 From above that, there, up there, I saw the rope. 20:25.000 --> 20:34.000 Yes. 20:34.000 --> 20:39.000 The guard who was waiting worked fast and moved me into position. 20:39.000 --> 20:43.000 The men in the room below me now, they were looking up. 20:43.000 --> 20:46.000 There was a movement among them. 20:46.000 --> 20:56.000 One of them had fainted, fell off the bench, and landed hard. 20:56.000 --> 20:58.000 It was like in a dream. 20:58.000 --> 21:00.000 I wondered if he had hurt himself. 21:00.000 --> 21:02.000 Then I felt something over my head. 21:02.000 --> 21:04.000 And I knew the rope was being adjusted. 21:04.000 --> 21:06.000 Then another guard was in front of me. 21:06.000 --> 21:07.000 He had a hood. 21:07.000 --> 21:10.000 He lifted it and it came down over my head. 21:10.000 --> 21:14.000 Somewhere inside of me, screams began, but my lips were closed. 21:14.000 --> 21:19.000 And I was saying to myself, hurry, hurry, hurry. 21:21.000 --> 21:22.000 Hello. 21:22.000 --> 21:25.000 Tom, don't you know better than to ring the phone now. 21:25.000 --> 21:27.000 Guilford's on the scaffold. 21:27.000 --> 21:28.000 What? 21:28.000 --> 21:30.000 The governor's missing? 21:30.000 --> 21:31.000 What? 21:31.000 --> 21:33.000 Are you sure? 21:33.000 --> 21:34.000 The cops have sprung. 21:34.000 --> 21:35.000 McGill! 21:35.000 --> 21:36.000 McGill, stop! 21:36.000 --> 21:37.000 There's a pardon! 21:37.000 --> 21:38.000 Stop it! 21:38.000 --> 21:39.000 Stop it! 21:39.000 --> 22:01.000 No, a man doesn't always die right away when he's hanged. 22:01.000 --> 22:05.000 They talk about the neck being broken and death coming instantly. 22:05.000 --> 22:06.000 No, not always. 22:06.000 --> 22:08.000 Death doesn't come for a long time. 22:08.000 --> 22:11.000 For some men it's nearly 20 minutes. 22:11.000 --> 22:13.000 For others it may be less. 22:13.000 --> 22:16.000 But never under 12 minutes before the heart stops. 22:16.000 --> 22:18.000 You can check on that. 22:18.000 --> 22:19.000 Me? 22:19.000 --> 22:21.000 I was up only a few seconds. 22:21.000 --> 22:26.000 They cut me down and the doctors worked on me right on the wheel stretcher that was waiting to carry my body out. 22:26.000 --> 22:29.000 No, I didn't lose consciousness. 22:29.000 --> 22:31.000 I sometimes wish I had. 22:31.000 --> 22:37.000 I sometimes wish I'd gone then instead of being brought back to remember every bit of those last hours. 22:37.000 --> 22:41.000 There was a new trial after I was on my feet again. 22:41.000 --> 22:43.000 But I don't know what was dead. 22:43.000 --> 22:44.000 I was free. 22:44.000 --> 22:46.000 I saw the girl, Judy. 22:46.000 --> 22:49.000 I know her name now and I thank him. 22:49.000 --> 22:54.000 Neither one of us knew what to say after that, so she just went. 22:54.000 --> 22:58.000 Yes, I never sleep indoors. 22:58.000 --> 23:00.000 I never button my collar. 23:00.000 --> 23:03.000 I don't like buildings, any buildings. 23:03.000 --> 23:07.000 They drop stone and steel and hold you in. 23:07.000 --> 23:11.000 I want to be out here where I can see the sky anytime I open my eyes. 23:11.000 --> 23:13.000 And I open them often. 23:13.000 --> 23:16.000 I think too much when they're closed. 23:16.000 --> 23:19.000 I hear the clock. 23:19.000 --> 23:21.000 The clock. 23:21.000 --> 23:47.000 The clock. 23:51.000 --> 24:14.000 This is the Armed Forces radio service. 24:14.000 --> 24:42.000 The Armed Forces radio service. 24:42.000 --> 24:59.000 The Armed Forces radio service.