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New Orleans, May 1, 1936 – FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover personally oversees the capture of Alvin Karpis, America’s “Public Enemy #1.” Just 27 when caught, the gangster spent 33 years behind bars. Karpis moved to Spain’s Costa del Sol and died at age 71 in 1979. Tulsa, Oklahoma, May 17, 1955 – Nannie Doss pleads guilty to murdering husband Sam with arsenic. She also confessed to poisoning three of her four previous husbands and was suspected in the deaths of her mother and two children. Oklahoma now requires an autopsy whenever someone dies without medical personnel in attendance – the Nannie Doss Law. Sentenced to life in prison, she died of leukemia in 1965. Thanks to Margo Bowles for the tip about this case! Vicksburg, Mississippi, May 19, 1944 – Mildred Johnson becomes the last woman to be executed in Mississippi. Johnson was convicted of robbing Nannie Conklin, 72, in Vicksburg and beating her to death. At the time, Mississippi used a mobile electric chair that travelled from county to county to carry out executions. New York, May 29, 1942 – Madeline Webb, her lover Eddie Shonbrun, and John Cullen are convicted of first-degree murder in the robbery-slaying of Susan Flora Reich. The victim’s body was found in the hotel suite Madeline and Shonbrun were renting under an alias. Shonbrun and Cullen died in Sing Sing’s electric chair in 1943. Madeline was given a life sentence but won parole in 1967 after nearly 25 years in prison.
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