All What's You Should Know

Willie Mae Bragg, first black to execute using portable electric chair Willie Mae Bragg, first victim of the nation's only portable electric chair, looks on as he is strapped by deputies into the 'Throne of death', a few minutes before the current shot through his body at Lucedale, Mississippi on Oct. 11, 1940. The portable electric chair was made necessary because Mississippi law calls for execution in the country where the crime, in this case wife slaying, was committed. Willie Mae Bragg, a black man, was convicted to death for the murder of his ex-wife in 1939. He survived his first execution and filed a complaint alleging that he survived from the execution as they had already executed him. Willie Mae Bragg’s appeal failed, and he was executed the following year in a portable electric chair that had been put into service. On the day of Willie Mae Bragg’s first execution, he was tied up; unfortunately, he survived. His last cries were for the strap to be removed. After h...