Three men had already been executed by the state of New York by the time it was Martha Place’s turn in March 1899.
As the first woman to be sentenced to death via electrocution, she received lots of media attention.
Place, 44, was living at 598 Hancock Street in Brooklyn with her husband, William, a widower who had a 17-year-old daughter, Ida.
When William came home one night in 1898, he was met by an ax-wielding Martha. Upstairs lay Ida’s body, with her eyes burned out. Later it was determined that Martha suffocated her after throwing acid in her face.
Martha was put on trial; every day she wore the same black dress. Convicted of Ida’s murder, she was sentenced to be electrocuted at Sing Sing within six weeks, reported The New York Times in July 1898.
“The indifferent, rather cynical look which was on her face throughout the trial had entirely disappeared,” the Times stated.
“She was pale, and wept as she entered the room. She trembled as she faced Judge Hurd, and seemed for the first time to realize the position in which her crime had placed her.”
Appeals for a new trial, plus a request by Governor Teddy Roosevelt to spare her life, didn’t work out.
On March 20, 1899, Place was strapped into the wooden chair; out of deference to her sex, electrodes were put on her ankles rather than a more intrusive spot on her body. She was buried in New Jersey.
Ephemeral New York 