Green Haven Correctional Facility, in New York, was originally a federal prison housing numerous types of criminals. One such criminal, Donald Snyder, was simply a car thief, until he managed to escape.
He wasn’t the smartest of criminals though, and police were almost immediately on his trail. He kidnapped a 9-year old girl, thinking he could bargain his way out of going back to jail. Police weren’t going to give in, and in a standoff, police fired at him. Snyder then stabbed his hostage in the abdomen before being recaptured.to
The 9-year old girl died as a result of her injury, and Snyder was convicted of murder and subsequently sent to Sing Sing Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison about 30 miles north of New York City. There, he awaited execution by the electric chair.
Knowing there was no way to escape from Sing Sing, and no way to get pardoned from death row, Snyder devised a new plan. He would eat his way out of execution.
Thinking that if he was too fat for the electric chair, they wouldn’t be able to execute him, and his death sentence would be commuted to a life in prison sentence.
Snyder began to eat as much as he could, and his original weight of 150 pounds soon rose to more than 300.
On the day of his execution, the guards asked him what he wanted for his last meal. “Pork chops and eggs, and plenty of ‘em,” he said enthusiastically. He then spent his last few hours chatting with a guard, contemplating what the press would say when he wouldn’t fit in the electric chair, wondering if they would go wild.
Unfortunately, for Snyder, his efforts were wasted. Some say the existing chair was big enough for him, while others say that they had to rig up a larger chair. According to the Encyclopedia of American Prisons, a New York City tabloid wrote, “The hot seat fitted him as though it had been made to order.”
In the end, the executioner still flipped the switch, and a very large, Donald Snyder, died that day.
Outside of the electric chair, there are other methods in place for the death penalty. In medieval times, people would utilize some interesting tools, to not only deliver punishment, but also to extract information, or just torture. Check out these 10 Heinous Medieval Torture Devices.