Until You Are Dead: The Book of Executions in America

"Until You Are Dead" is a popular history of capital punishment in the USA Itopens with the first electrocution (and the legal battles around that method)it covers a wide array of methods for doing away with Society's unwanted.Chapters cover electrocution, firing squad, lethal Gas, lethal injection, andthe traditional hanging. Famous judges and executioners are also given briefbiographies.Most of the men (and women) who meet their end at the end of a rope areunknowns in the annals of history, some are better known. Drimmer coverssuch famous events as the Hauptman trial (kidnaper of the Lindbergh baby),Gary Gilmore, and the "Red Light Bandit" (Caryl Chessman).He spans the whole of American history with information about the MayflowerPilgrim who was hung for plotting revolt to the Quakers who were hung forplotting salvation. The sad history of the Salem Witch trials is recountedas well as the massacre of western pioneers by early Mormon settlers.Drimmer is clearly no fan of Capital Punishment and makes sure that thereader is introduced to people who have been executed though history declaresthem innocent. He also highlights many botched executions where the painlessdeath was in fact state torture. . While there are some statistics aboutother countries and individual states, there is really no long argument foror against the ultimate penalty. Drimmer is content for the most part to letthe stories speak for themselves.While the author has a tendency to jump around a bit and repeat the same casein different chapters to highlight different aspects, the book was a quickand enjoyable overview of the methods used and the struggle faced by thisnation to exact justice in the most extreme form.

Anyone interested in issues regarding capital punishment should get a hold of this book. Drimmer covers the history of the most popluar methods of executions in america: hanging, electrocution, lethal gas, firing squad, and lethal injection. Drimmer does a very good job of staying unbiased throughout the book - you never really get a sense of his opinion regarding this macabre subject. The book does drag at some points with anecdote after anecdote of specific cases. I also wish he had gone more in depth to some of the colonial methods of execution and torture. But this is a good resource for students and enthusiasts alike. Pick it up if you can find it.