When last we saw him (in this column Oct. 11) condemned murderer Amos Ratliff was smiling on his way to a good night's sleep in the death cell within the Arkansas prison known as "the Walls," in Little Rock.
We begin this column where the last one left off Oct. 4: in the middle of a confession. Amos Ratliff, a 25-year-old convicted murderer, on Sept. 29, 1921, thought he was going to die at sunrise the next day.
A century ago, Arkansas Gov. Thomas McRae postponed the execution of a murderer named Amos Ratliff 10 hours before he was due to die in the electric chair. But the warden and Ratliff’s minister didn’t tell him right away. They let him confess first.