IT'S SHOCKING: 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF SING SING'S FIRST FEMALE

IT'S SHOCKING: 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF SING SING'S FIRST FEMALE ELECTROCUTION

OSSINING, N.Y. (Wireless Flash) -- This Saturday (Mar. 20) is a shocking date: it's the 100th anniversary of the day the first woman was electrocuted at New York's infamous Sing Sing prison. The unlucky lady was Martha Place, who was sentenced to the chair for the murdering her stepdaughter, Ida. Sing Sing historian Roberta Arminio says unlike previous executions in which prisoners suffered as electrical sparks ignited their hair, Mrs. Place's execution was quite sedate because the kinks had been worked out in the then-new technology. One newspaper even described the electrocution of Mrs. Place as the most painless and least gory electric chair execution since the electric chair was adopted a few years before. These days, Sing Sing is still executing prisoners, but lethal injection is now the preferred method.

CONTACT: Roberta Arminio, **1/2; Ossining, NY; (914) 941-0001