The

Hellwood Archive

Cult cinema, true crime, strange history and cultural oddities.

Stories from the darker corners of film, television, music, literature, crime, history and the unexplained.

the mercy seat

Late-Victorian American prison death chamber containing an early wooden electric chair and primitive electrical apparatus

True Crime History

William Kemmler and the Electric Chair: When America Tried to Invent a Humane Execution

William Kemmler entered Auburn Prison’s death chamber in 1890 to test a machine promoted as a modern, humane replacement for...

31 Aug 2026 • Archive Note