Adam Richetti's Life in Prison

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="02c285a1erlcgo.png"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Arial" ><B>Sustik and Richetti Family History</B></FONT><B>     |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sustik and Richetti Family History"><B>home</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id25.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Adams Art">Adam's Art</A>   |   <A HREF="id29.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Trial of the Kansas City Massacre">The Trial of the Kansas City Massacre</A>   |   <A HREF="id33.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="KC Massacre Trial Day 3">KC Massacre Trial Day 3</A>   |   <A HREF="id41.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="KC Massacre Trial Day 4">KC Massacre Trial Day 4</A>   |   <A HREF="id42.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="KC Massacre Trial Day 5">KC Massacre Trial Day 5</A>   |   <A HREF="id43.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="KC Massacre Trial Day 6">KC Massacre Trial Day 6</A>   |   <B>Adam Richetti's Life in Prison</B></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="02ad2c00dkelyh.png"> <div> <A HREF="id29.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Trial of the Kansas City Massacre">The Trial Day 1 and 2</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id33.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="KC Massacre Trial Day 3">The Trial Day 3</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id41.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="KC Massacre Trial Day 4">The Trial Day 4</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id42.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="KC Massacre Trial Day 5">The Trial Day 5</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id43.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="KC Massacre Trial Day 6">The Trial Day 6</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id58.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Prison Death Certificate">Prison Death Certificate</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id59.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Arrest Record">Adam's Arrest Record</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id56.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="FingerPrints">Adam's Finger Prints</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id57.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Criminal File">Adam's Criminal File</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id60.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Death Warrant">Adam's Death Warrant</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id91.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Execution Times">Execution Timeline</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id92.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Record of Execution">Record of Execution</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id58.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Prison Death Certificate">Prison Death Certificate</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id93.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Funeral Record">Funeral Record</A></div> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sustik and Richetti Family History">Home</A></div> <div> <IMG SRC="1009d2f0.png" border=0 width="157" height="303" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 width="100%" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="12a32df3.jpg"> <div> <I>Adam Richetti's Life in Prison</I></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>ADAM'S LIFE</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>AFTER HIS SENTENCING</B></div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="13896c80.jpg" border=0 width="150" height="200" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Adam Richetti September 2, 1938</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>Four months after </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="id59.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Arrest Record"><B>Adam's conviction</B></A></FONT><B>, on Oct. 22, 1935 a poem, ran in the Kansas City Star. It was a memorial to Charles Floyd, written and placed by Beulah, </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="id138.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="FBI Nov 21, 1934"><B>Rose</B></A></FONT><B>, and Adam.</B> </div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="id137.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Rose and Beulah Baird"><IMG SRC="0f789df0.jpg" border=0 width="137" height="223" ALT="Rose and Beulah Baird" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></A></div> <div> Rose and Beulah Baird</div> <bR> <div> <I><B>We never knew what pain he had.</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>We did not see him die;</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>We only knew he passed away.</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>And did not say goodbye.</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>We are thinking of you Daddy dear,</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Thinking of the past.</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>You left behind some broken hearts</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>That loved you to the last;</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>That never did, nor never will</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Forget you, Daddy dear,</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>And while you rest in peaceful sleep</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Your memory we shall always keep.</B></I></div> <bR> <div> <B>Adam sat in the county jail for a little over 4 years. While in the county jail he had been fed poorly and grossly mistreated. He had been tortured severely, being burnt on his stomach and the bottoms of his feet with cigarettes. His toenails and fingernails had been torn off systematically, all of this to get him to talk about his involvement in the Kansas City incident.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>While he had spent those long hard years in the county jail, the jailers had moved him from cell to cell so that he would draw many of his murals on the cells that he had occupied. Adam was a very talented artist and painter. While he was in jail he drew many pictures some of which can be viewed </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="id25.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Adams Art"><B>here.</B></A></FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>Adam's lawyers eventually appealed his conviction, but it was affirmed by the State of Missouri Supreme Court on May 3, 1938. Subsequently, due to his continued abuses at the hands of local law enforcement and the jailers in charge of him, Richetti's lawyers alleged Adam to be insane, and a hearing was held at which time his sanity was clearly established. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>On August 31, 1938, Adam was again sentenced to death, this time in the gas chamber of the Missouri State Penitentiary of Jefferson City, Missouri. Adam after spending 4 years and 3 months in the county jail was transferred to the Missouri State Prison on</B><A HREF="id57.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Criminal File"><B> </B></A><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="id57.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Criminal File"><B>September 2, 1938</B></A><B>.</B></FONT><B> It would be only another month before the end.</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="0f9c6820.jpg" border=0 width="198" height="130" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Missouri State Penitentiary</div> <div> Jefferson City, Mo.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Adam washed his hands and combed his hair time after time that day, October 6th 1938 as he awaited his somber walk to the gas chamber. This was the last day that he would ever see daylight, he nervously counted the hours.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>He continued his refusal to talk freely with officers. He indicated he wished to spend his remaining hours in solitude, the hand washing and hair combing continued, being a pastime for months.</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B><IMG SRC="47e7cab0.jpg" border=0 width="124" height="171" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> Prison Bible issued to Adam</div> <bR> <div> <B>He spent his last day quietly in his cell maintaining the silence that he had observed since his capture in Wellsville, Ohio. He had declined an offer of a private radio and grunted "No" when asked if the radios in other cells in death row would bother him. Adam's last meal consisted of the same as the rest of the prisoners, with the exception of a few extras. His menu consisted of eggs, steak, potatoes, eggplant, corn, gravy, bun, butter, pineapple, cookies, cake and coffee.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>During the months he was held in jail and prison, he frequently boasted he would not be executed and that gangster associates would "spring" him. Tonight, soon after midnight, he would be put to death. His hopes and wishes finally ending that night. Adam had dark hair and slightly balding, brown eyes, high cheek bones and was about 5 feet 7 inches tall with a slouch and weighed 121 pounds.</B></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id60.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Death Warrant"><B>40 witnesses</B></A><B> </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>were invited to the execution, not all attending. Among them were Louis A. Myers, detective sergeant, and Robert E. Hermanson, patrolman, son of the slain Frank E. Hermanson, whom Adam was accused of killing, from the Kansas City police department, hiway patrolman, Capt. John H. Yount, from Jefferson City, Merrill Chilcote and Harold Slater, both of St. Joe's Mo. News Press, Nells R. Nelson, Kansas City Humane Society, John J. Carrol, Chief of Dectives St. Louis, MO, two agents of the federal bureau of investigation, E.P. Guinanna, and H.L. Scott, and three deputy sheriffs from Kansas City, Ralph Depew, Joe Phillips, and J.A. Fairdome.</B></FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>Under the law, Adam was permitted to make requests for witnesses among his immediate family but choose not to have any present. His two brothers, Joe Richetti of Bolivar, Mo., and Dave Richetti of Dunn Glen, Ohio, visited him in the death cell Wednesday to say the family's good-bye's.</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="134c9940.png" border=0 width="201" height="148" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> B&C Hall 1938 Missouri State Penn</div> <bR> <div> <B>Adam was taken from his cell in 'B' hall inside the prison, a long quiet, lonely walk to the small gray building housing the gas chamber at 11:30pm, Thursday the 6th of October. He was placed in a temporary cell, his hands shackled, where he was attended by two Catholic priests.</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="13abb7d0.jpg" border=0 width="187" height="125" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Temporary Holding Cell</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="135c8920.jpg" border=0 width="200" height="146" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Gas Chamber built 1937</div> <bR> <div> <B>J. Frank Ramsey, warden, read the</B><A HREF="id60.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Death Warrant"><B> </B></A><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="id60.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Death Warrant"><B>death warrant</B></A></FONT><B> at 12:02am, Friday the 7th of October. Adam's life would now be measured in minutes and seconds. "What is this all about?" Adam asked, when Ramsey had finished. The two priests then administered the last rites of the church to Adam Richetti before the condemned man was stripped to his shorts for entrance into the cold deadly gas chamber. Goggle blindfolds then were placed over his eyes and he was led the ten short steps to the entrance of the lethal chamber at 12:06am.</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="137a4700.jpg" border=0 width="164" height="112" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> The Chamber</div> <bR> <div> <B>Adam maintained his bravado until the leather straps were tightened around his arms and legs. Still protesting his innocence, Adam proclaimed, "What have I done to deserve this?" he exclaimed as guards strapped him in one of the two chairs, </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="id91.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Execution Times"><B>closed the heavy steel door at 12:10am</B></A></FONT><B>. 15 seconds later the generator started that released the deadly cyanide eggs into a bucket of water. Instantly vapors began to flow from the bucket onto the floor of the lethal chamber. The lips of the attending priests moved in prayers. </B></div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Prison officers believed Adam had gambled on a last minute commutation but that failed to materialize. Within</B></FONT><B> </B><A HREF="id91.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Execution Times"><B>15 seconds </B></A><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>after the deadly cyanide eggs had been dropped the lethal fumes arose around Adam's face and when he was able to see the gas that soon would put him to sleep for ever, his control snapped. Instead of breathing deeply, he struggled to hold his breath for several seconds. Adam gasped deeply once, and then witnesses and attending prison officials heard an unsettling, piercing scream come from the gas chamber from a man that they would remember forever. Adam was the first to make an outcry - five others had died in the gas chamber before him quietly. The gas acted quickly and by 12:11am Adam had become unconscious and through a window on one side, the guards watched him slump forward. By 12:12am Adam made no movement and sat there silently as if asleep. At 12:14am, he was pronounced dead by the prison doctor, Dr. W. W. Rambo.</B></FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>Adam silently sat in that chamber surrounded by the deadly cyanide gas for another 14 minutes until prison officials turned on the blowers to clear the chamber of the deadly gas that they had unleashed . At 12:46 the heavy, cold steel door was unlatched and opened.</B></div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Adam's lifeless body was unstrapped and removed from the deadly chamber that he had spent the last few remaining seconds of his young short life, and carried to an awaiting gurney where he was officially pronounced dead, and an </B></FONT><A HREF="id92.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Record of Execution"><B>identifying fingerprint</B></A><B> </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>was taken of his right index finger. His death thus officially closed the case of the Kansas City Massacre. Adam Richetti was the</B></FONT><A HREF="id58.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Prison Death Certificate"><B> 6th person to die in the Missouri gas chamber.</B></A></div> <bR> <div> <B>Adam's body was returned to Bolivar, Missouri, under the supervision of the Polk County Sheriff, Harry D. Butler, and the funeral director of the Butler Funeral Home, Mr. Willard B. Erwin. There in the Butler Funeral Home services were held with Joe Richetti presiding. Adam Richetti was buried at the Greenwood Cemetery in Section 10, lot 32, facing west to the street in Bolivar, Missouri on October 10, 1938.  The adjoining plots remain empty to this day. .  </B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div>  <A NAME="adam_s_grave_stone"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><IMG SRC="0fba0740.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="116" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Greenwood Cemetery, Bolivar, Mo.</div> <bR> <div> <B>His small, nondescript tombstone, rests alone. Joe Richetti listed Adam's occupation as a mechanic on the</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="id93.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Funeral Record"><B> funeral record.</B></A></FONT><B> Adam's obituary read:</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B><U>ADAM Richetti</U></B></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>Adam Richetti was born in Strawn Tex., Aug 5, 1909.</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>The youngest son of Elizabeth and Barto Richetti.</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>He was baptized into the Catholic Church.</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>He spent most of his life with his parents</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>in Lehigh, Okla., and for a short time made </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>his home in Bolivar with his brother, Joe Richetti.</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Adam Richetti passed from this life to the next</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Oct. 7, 1938.</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>He leaves to mourn his passing his mother,</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Mrs. B. Richetti of Lehigh, Ok., two brothers,</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Joe Richetti of Bolivar, Mo., and Dave Richetti</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>of Dillonvale, Ohio, and three sisters, Mrs Eva Pittman</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>of Wichita Falls, Tex., Mrs Marie Freer of Lehigh, Ok.,</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>and Mrs. Minnie Sustik of Dillonvale, Ohio.</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>A private funeral service was held, Monday, Oct. 10, 1938,</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>at 10 am conducted by Rev Lester Greenwood. </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Interment was in Greenwood Cemetery at Bolivar under the</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>direction of the White and Erwin Funeral Home.</B></I></div> <bR> <div> <U>CARD OF THANKS</U></div> <bR> <div> <I>We wish to thank our neighbors and</I></div> <div> <I>friends for their sympathy and help and the floral offerings</I></div> <div> <I>and especially do we thank Mr. and Mrs. White </I></div> <div> <I>and Mr. and Mrs. Willard Erwin.</I></div> <div> <I>Joe Richetti and family</I></div> <div> <I>Dave Richetti</I></div> <div> <I>Mrs. B. Richetti</I></div> <bR> <div> <B>Three days after Adam's execution, the case US Vs Adam Richetti, in the district court of the United States of America for the Western District of Missouri, Western Division, was dismissed. Dated at Kansas City, Missouri, the 10 day of October, 1938. The order was signed by Judge Albert Reeves.</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B><IMG SRC="0fd5b820.jpg" border=0 width="91" height="130" ALT="Judge Albert Reeves" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> Judge Albert Reeves</div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>