Carl Fox
Kentucky Post, 6 April 1945, page 1
DEATH
EDDYVILLE KY-April 6-Making no final statement other than "I'm
ready to die" Carl Fox, 20 year old Newport Negro, paid the extreme penalty at
1:15 am today in the electric chair in the state penitentiary. The Negro,
convicted for rape committed upon a Jackson Ky. high school girl, was pronounced
dead at 1:15 am (CWT). Warden Dewey Ward said the first electrical shock was
administered at 1:10 am.
The condemned youth's body was claimed by his mother, Mrs. Sophia Fox, W Fifth street, Newport. The plea for clemency made by A J Slaughter, Covington Negro attorney, was denied late Thursday by Gov S S Willie. The Covington attorney alleged errors in the trial and that the condemned Negro was not guilty of rape. The Negro admitted an attempt but accused two of his alleged accomplices of the actual criminal attack. H K Spear, assistant attorney, general who opposed the plea, declared the Negro was given a fair trial and the penalty should fit the time.
Edward Hambrick, 28, another Newport Negro, also received the death penalty but won a 30 day stay of execution when his attorney filed a motion with the Court of Appeals for reconsideration of his appeal. No such action had been taken in behalf of Fox. The two condemned Negroes and three accomplices are alleged to have seized the high school girl while she and a soldier companion were seated on a bench in the Newport City Park on Aug 5, 1943.
Henry McCall and William Stutson tried as accessories, were given long prison terms. Two other Negroes inducted as accessories were dismissed after the girl and her companion were unable to identify them.