Hold My Sweet Tea
Where True Crime collides with chilling ghost stories and Southern folklore. Join us, sip sweet tea, and uncover shocking tales of murder, mystery, and the supernatural, all with a healthy dose of Southern charm and a touch of sass!
Hold My Sweet Tea
Ep. 59-Jimmy Thompson and Old Sparky
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
This bizarre and macabre piece of American history stands alone—Mississippi was the only state ever to employ a portable electric chair.
We dive deep into the disturbing story of "Old Sparky" and its first operator, Jimmy Thompson, a former carnival hypnotist and ex-convict who approached his grim task with the showmanship of PT Barnum. Paid $100 per execution, Thompson turned these somber events into public spectacles, complete with newspaper photographers, crowds of onlookers, and even non-lethal demonstrations for the curious. His callous comments about giving condemned prisoners "a good clean burning" reveal the disturbing lack of solemnity surrounding these state-sanctioned killings.
The chair itself had a troubled history, with malfunctioning generators sometimes causing prolonged, agonizing deaths as inmates remained partially electrocuted between jolts of electricity. We explore how Mississippi's execution methods evolved from hanging to the electric chair following public outcry over a botched execution, and how the chair's technical failures eventually led to its replacement by the gas chamber. We also share the chilling reports that Elijah Parker, executed in the Hinds County Courthouse in 1944, still haunts the building's basement where he met his fate.
This episode connects personally to us as we once created a haunted house featuring a replica electric chair based on this dark chapter of Mississippi history. Join us for this fascinating exploration of justice, spectacle, and how the methods we choose to punish reflect the values of our society. Subscribe to Hold My Sweet Tea for more hidden stories from Southern history that challenge, surprise, and sometimes disturb.
Source Material:
L Powell IV, July 23,2021, Death on Wheels-Jackson, MS, https://www.southernspiritguide.org/death-on-wheels-jackson-mississippi/
Cabana, Donald A., October 2004, The history of Capital punishment in Mississippi: An Overview, https://www.mshistorynow.mdah.ms.gov/issue/history-of-capital-punishment-in-mississippi-an-overview
Mississippi's Traveling Electric Chair Intro
Speaker 1Between 1940 and 1954, 73 people would meet their fate in the presence of a traveling executioner and keeper of Old Sparky. This is Hold my Sweet Tea. Thank you, hey y'all.
Speaker 2I'm Pearl. Hi, I'm Holly Plain, old Holly Plain, old Holly. I didn't have anything clever today, so you know, you just got high.
Speaker 1But still, you know, we're clever every day, that's right. We are clever Even more, just plain clever.
Speaker 2On the fly Witty.
Speaker 1Lots of gross stuff in the news round here, oh my goodness, yes, a little boy went missing.
Speaker 2He was autistic, 12 years old, and then they found him deceased in a pond or lake or whatever it was.
Speaker 1I know it was like pond lagoon, I don't know. It was like there's lagoons in Louisiana.
Speaker 2Is that a swamp?
Speaker 1Yeah, I was like pond's lagoons in Louisiana. Is that a swamp? Yeah, I was like pond. Okay, pond. Apparently alligators live in said pond.
Speaker 2Yes, and I don't know if I believe this whole story or not, but we'll see how it unfolds.
Speaker 1Yeah, we'll just continue to watch and see.
Speaker 2But the NOPD took five hours to even acknowledge and go search for this child, even though he was 12, he was autistic.
Speaker 1Yeah, so that delay and then who knows what else. The whole thing's a little weird.
Speaker 2We'll see what happens. Lots of weird stuff going on. I think it's the new moon, though it's a new moon in Virgo and it was a new like black moon, so there was no sliver that was visible, and you know them. Virgos be virgoing lovely, they're brats. Well, I mean, they are ruled by mercury, the planet of war and destruction. I have a virgo rising, though, so I understand. Well, I live with one. Yes, you also live with a Capricorn. I'm so sorry I do Us. Earth signs are just something else.
Speaker 1I think I just live in a Zodiac hell in my house. It's not that bad. Pisces man Capricorn Virgo and wonderful me the cancer of the bunch. I'm the only good person in the house. I just want to point that out.
Speaker 2So anyway, so this story that you're going to tell us today, yeah, we've had experiences with it, so that's not with the sparky part of it.
Speaker 1No, like I've researched it before, but for a whole different reason. Yes, so yeah, I got like a little bit of extra stuff that. I didn't see the first time, but we're going to be talking about the Mississippi State Executioner, jimmy Thompson, and the portable electric chair.
Speaker 2That's crazy to think that somebody was just hauling around this wooden electric chair and generators and like, yeah, come down here here, we'll pay you to execute this person. Now we need to travel over here and do that person and it said he got paid like a hundred dollars per.
Speaker 1That was some money down there back then yeah, but he was also an alcoholic, so yeah, well, pretty sure it just got spent on things that it shouldn't have been. Right, there's that.
Speaker 2I'm pretty sure he probably was drinking and driving with the electric. Oh my gosh.
History of Mississippi Execution Methods
Speaker 1Well, it said that he, like binge, drank after he after an execution, like he would just go get totally wasted to the point of some. In some cases he was like actually arrested for public intoxication, wow, and all that jazz. So yeah, little upfront tidbits, insanity. So we'll kind of do a little history first so you understand what led to Mississippi having a portable electric chair, perfect. So the very first documented execution ever in any way by the state of Mississippi was in Adams County on July 16, 1818. It was a Caucasian male by the name of George H Harmon and he actually was sent to the gallows and hung because he stole someone else's slave.
Speaker 2Oh, okay.
Speaker 1Yeah, hanging or being sent to the gallows was Mississippi's method of execution all the way up until 1940. Oh wow, so you got in trouble. That led to a death sentence. You were hung. The electric chair would be used until 1995. Oh, then they switched to the gas chamber, mm-hmm. And then in 2002, that was replaced by lethal injection, which is what's still being used today.
Speaker 2Right, that's what most states use. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1So that was kind of your abbreviated version of the history of execution styles in Mississippi, right when Mississippi had finally moved from hanging to electrocution. It was like considered a compromise by lawmakers because there was a huge outcry from the public over a 1932 hanging of a guy named Guy Fairley. They said it was like just massively mishandled, so I assume he suffered greatly, yeah because sometimes those can get messy, especially if your neck doesn't break immediately.
Speaker 1Yeah, and so the public was just like completely appalled and causing a ruckus. So they decided okay, we're going to change from hanging people to electric chair, and. But we don't want to spend the money to equip every place in the state with an electric chair or to have to transport all these prisoners everywhere. So our compromise is we're going to get a portable one. It sounded like the best idea ever, until they realized no one else has one. No one's ever built one. How are we doing this? Right? They finally find a company in Memphis that agrees to make it, so then they, you know, have to haul it around in this truck. So the truck, the electric chair, generators, all that was worth their money, but not putting different chairs in different places Crazy.
Speaker 2Well, I guess some of the counties and stuff had like really small jails so it would make sense to have somebody or bring them, but I would say they were doing these executions in the jail yard.
Jimmy Thompson: The Carnival Executioner
Speaker 1Yeah, were doing these executions in the jail yard. Yeah, so, and despite the fact that they're being done there, it still drew like a large crowd. They allowed people to watch fun times right. Come on down, bring the family and just be. You know, in case anybody wanted to know why Guy Fairley was being hung, he was actually executed for the murder of a prohibition enforcement officer who had reported him for violating liquor laws.
Speaker 2Yeah, thirsty, thirsty, thirsty, yep.
Speaker 1Yep. So between 1940 and 1954, 73 people would meet their fate, seemed Mississippi was of their use of this traveling electric chair.
Speaker 2Yeah because I've seen them. They had like school kids out there and stuff and they were all gathered around it like let's take a picture in front of the electric chair that's going to kill somebody today and they would report on these deaths in the local newspaper and it's like they exuded pride in these articles Like fanfare.
Speaker 1Which was just so inappropriate on so many levels. The very first time it was ever used, there were photos taken and published in the clarion ledger. These photos showed an inmate being strapped into the chair, and even one was taken when the first wave of electricity traveled through the man's body.
Speaker 2Oh, no, that's I mean. Yeah, it's terrible.
Speaker 1But it was like a big old advertisement, like, don't be bad, this is what's going to happen to you, right? This?
Speaker 2is what's going to happen to you. A jolt of lightning here, but I mean even I'm sure they did something to deserve the death penalty.
Speaker 1But also, like you, don't go advertise it, no run an ad in the local newspaper it's crazy, especially like I said when they're showing so much pride in what they're doing and photography during an execution is actually banned, so literally.
Speaker 1It's these pictures and then one other set of Ruth Snyder being put to death in Sing Sing in New York. Those are literally the only pictures of executions in existence, or supposed to be right, at least that are of public knowledge. Yes, so the the first guy who died in old sparky, his executioner, was in fact Jimmy Thompson. He was the first executioner with the first portable electric chair. Wow, he was described as being a showman in the style of PT Barnum. So I think that's kind of what made everybody, you know, say, oh yeah, like this pride or whatever, because he was posing for pictures with the chair constantly, like you know.
Speaker 2Like led to all the fanfare, like come on down and see Jimmy Right, Because he would literally do non-lethal demonstrations so other people could see the chair see the chair, because the public was so curious.
Speaker 1So yeah, funny non-lethal demonstrations, I'm like okay. So the name of the first person who was put to death in Old Sparky was Willie Mae Bragg. He was actually convicted of killing his wife, so that's what happened there, and his execution actually occurred in Losedale, mississippi, and Thompson was quoted as saying that Bragg had died with tears in his eyes for the efficient care I took to give him a good clean burning. This is why I say what the heck right? Could you have been more uncouth about what you've just done?
Speaker 2he had no couth within him. No not at all. Not an ounce of couth.
Speaker 1And of course you know, like I said before, mississippi was the only state to use such a machine and so, like the world is watching, and he's saying things like this Crazy Well, he's got the whole world watching him.
Speaker 2He's like, yeah. So he's like, woohoo, look at me, Because PT Barn, he's got the whole world watching him. He's like, yeah.
Speaker 1So he's like look at me because PT Barnum, there you are. Oh, circus guy. So Jimmy was allegedly an ex-soldier and he was indeed an ex-carnival act. He was a hypnotist. Oh, and a little extra fun fact. Oh and a little extra fun fact is that Jimmy was actually an ex-con himself. He had lots of tattoos You've seen in the pictures. Yep, yeah, it is said by Simpson County Historical and Genealogical Society that Jimmy died a rather gruesome death in 1952.
Speaker 2They said he was decapitated while riding with his head out of the car window. Death by decapitation? There you go. Yeah, I was like. Oh, that had to be brutal.
Speaker 1Yes, indeed, probably quick and painless, though not like the electric chair nothing like the electric chair, because, yeah, I mean, just like hanging can go wrong. Yeah, yeah, so can that? So old sparky would be stored in Jackson, mississippi, in the state capitol building in between appointments Interesting place, right To put it. However, no one was actually executed in Jackson until February 9th of 1944. That's when 23-year-old Elijah Parker was put to death just after midnight in the basement of the Hines County Courthouse. So I think his probably had the least amount of audience.
First Death in Jackson's Old Sparky
Speaker 1Yeah, elijah Parker was put to death at 1227 am After being found guilty of the murder of T Henry Gober the Goberist. The Goberist it was like a year and a half earlier that that murder had occurred. So he's been hung out in jail for a little while. Elijah would be the first to die in Jackson, but the 20th person to die in the portable electric chair the portable electric chair. They do say that several dozen spectators were present for this execution because it was the first in Hines County, but, like I said, I don't think it was nearly as many as what Jimmy probably had, because his executioner was CW Watson, who took Jimmy's place, so I don't think he was Quite as flamboyant.
Speaker 2Right and popular.
Speaker 1Or show man-y.
Speaker 2He was like here's the chair. Let's get this over with Right.
Speaker 1But you know, like 15 people had died in the chair While Jimmy Thompson was the official executioner, so 15 people were a show. Basically 15 executions, $1,500.
Speaker 2Right, $1,500 worth of death, and he probably drank it all, like you said, because he was an alcoholic, a binge drinker.
Speaker 1He was an alcoholic, a binge drinker. So the fun thing is is that it's said that Parker haunts the old Hines County Courthouse.
Speaker 2Oh.
Speaker 1There are janitors and other employees who claim to see Elijah, because at that point they were putting, you know, the hoods over their heads and stuff like that so that you couldn't see their eyes Right While they were being executed, because it was so inappropriate. But yeah, so there's tons of reports of that. But usually.
Speaker 2It's typically like late at night or yeah, do it like in the 2 30 in the morning or something.
Speaker 1So yeah, but all the all the haunts are said to have been seen in or around basement area of the courthouse.
Electric Chair Malfunctions and Legacy
Speaker 1Of the courthouse, yeah, so basically in the area that he had died, Obviously the chair had its own set of issues and would malfunction, sometimes causing a prolonged and agonizing death for inmates. This happened to both executioners. You know like the generator would fail. You'd be like partially electrocuted, like sitting, like sitting there just like agonizing after it stopped, waiting for death, for the next jolt, and to finally die. I can't imagine to have like organs half fried right and to have to sit there and wait for them to finish kill me.
Speaker 2Yes, just hurry up, finish killing me.
Speaker 1Yes, just hurry up, finish killing me. Somebody stab me, please Like, do something Right, don't let me sit here like this. But that is what eventually led to the demise of the chair and started the use of the gas chamber Not any more humane in my opinion, so, but that's it. It that's all we got, but we did use. We looked all this stuff up because we did a haunted house way back before the vid.
Speaker 2Yeah, right before the vid mm-hmm it's fun. Well, wasn't the the traveling electric chair was?
Speaker 1there's no documented stuff that says it. It had actually passed there, right, but we, we used the story because, remember, we built, yeah, yeah, we actually built electric chair.
Speaker 2It came out really good too. Yeah, so this whole haunted house was in a um old historic jail in madison county. Yeah, and named the haunted house jailhouse shock yes, which is the point for the electric chair. Electric chair and finding the story and all that, so he built a fake electric chair and had somebody sitting in it and had like he was dressed as a cop actually Music going behind him and flashing lights it was. It was a lot of fun. It was really a lot of fun.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, and I had. I had a partially messed up finger during all that, but still managed to somehow build a crazy maze out of pallets outside the jail.
Speaker 2yep, went out the jail through the pallet maze cabin yep the stabbing cabin was the best. It was an old cabin out back where the um jailer lived and it was all full of like body parts and, yeah you know, guts and all kinds of stuff and and of course you know somebody with a chainsaw, a head, cooking in the fireplace? Yeah, we really enjoyed doing that and the chainsaw.
Speaker 1Yeah, Like what Haunted house is complete without a chainsaw person chasing you at the end Like it's necessary.
Speaker 2Yep, it was a lot of fun but, yeah, like learning that history none of us knew about because we ended up doing that haunted house, so that was a cool little uh piece of history we got to find out about little mississippi moment, yeah, and I was like seeing the pictures in my time.
Speaker 1Hop on my phone and I went. Why have I not done this in our podcast? This is silly. What's wrong with me? So?
Speaker 2so there you have it folks, the traveling electric chair, traveling electric chair.
Speaker 1I didn't even know that any place ever did a traveling electric chair until then.
Speaker 2Yeah, so that's what I was saying. I didn't know, know that either, so I'm sure a lot of you didn't either. But, right, that's really cool. But if any, any of our mississippi listeners know anything about it, right, give us a, give us a shout out and let us know.
Speaker 1We'd love to hear from you yeah, and we'll like I'm sure you guys will see the little, the millions of pictures. Yeah, it's not millions, it's several yeah, you'll get to see the pictures of of the guy.
Speaker 2Yeah, I don't have any pictures of the second guy, but I have pictures of the first guy got a little video made, so we'll we'll load that on reels and tiktok and um on the tubes of you youtube and facebook, so everybody can see it.
Speaker 1It's really cool, yeah maybe not the more explicit yeah, pictures, but you know what? It's not as cool as it's not as cool as patty salzetta who created our?
Speaker 2theme music exactly because she is the coolest and she travels around, yeah, and uses her voice to make people happy.
Speaker 1Right, she will shock you with her voice Indeed.
Speaker 2So go follow her on Facebook and follow her band.
Speaker 1Wonder Kind. Yeah, absolutely. She also sometimes sings with other bands bands like stands in when their singers can't be there. So it's good to follow her so you can see if she does anything like that. She'll do little duo appearances and all that fun stuff.
Speaker 1So some acoustics and check it out, yep, yep, and if you go, you can send us a message and tell us how much you loved it. Yes, deep at hold, my sweet teacom is our email address and you can always message us on social media all of them, all of them, yep, and, as always, hold my sweet.
Speaker 2Tea is a drunken bee production and you guys remember, stay safe out there. Just because we're dipping doesn't mean you can't keep sipping. Bye and don't get electrocuted. Thank you, bye.