The Chamber (Page 54)
"The witnesses are also in a great deal of danger, and they don’t have a clue. There’s nothing between them and the chamber except for a row of windows, which are old and equally subject to leakage. They’re also in a small room with the door closed, and if there’s a gas leak of any size these gawking fools get gassed too.
"But the real danger comes afterward. There’s a wire they stick to your ribs and it runs through a hole in the chamber to outside where a doctor monitors the heartbeat. Once the doctor says the guy is dead, they open a valve on top of the chamber and the gas is supposed to evaporate. Most of it does. They’ll wait fifteen minutes or so, then open the door. The cooler air from the outside that’s used to evacuate the chamber causes a problem because it mixes with the remaining gas and condenses on everything inside. It creates a death trap for anyone going in. It’s extremely dangerous, and most of these clowns don’t realize how serious it is. There’s a residue of prussic acid on everything – walls, windows, floor, ceiling, door, and, of course, the dead guy.
"They spray the chamber and the corpse with ammonia to neutralize the remaining gas, then the removal team or whatever it’s called goes in with oxygen masks. They’ll wash the inmate a second time with ammonia or chlorine bleach because the poison oozes through the pores in the skin. While he’s still strapped in the chair, they cut his clothes off, put them in a bag, and burn them. In the old days they allowed the guy to wear only a pair of shorts so their job would be easier. But now they’re such sweethearts they allow us to wear whatever we want. So if I get that far, I’ll have a hell of a time, selecting my wardrobe."
He actually spat on the floor as he thought about this. He cursed under his breath and stomped around the far end of the table.
"What happens to the body?" Adam asked, somewhat ashamed to tread on such sensitive matters but nonetheless anxious to complete the story.
Sam grunted a time or two, then stuck the cigarette in his mouth. "Do you know the extent of my wardrobe?"
"No."
"Consists of two of these red monkey suits, four or five sets of clean underwear, and one pair of these cute little rubber shower shoes that look like leftovers from a nigger fire sale. I refuse to die in one of these red suits. I’ve thought about exercising my constitutional rights and parading into the chamber buck naked. Wouldn’t that be a sight? Can you see those goons trying to shove me around and strap me in and trying like hell not to touch my privates. And when they get me strapped down, I’ll reach over and take the little heart monitor gizmo and attach it to my testicles. Wouldn’t the doctor love that? And I’d make sure the witnesses saw my bare ass. I think that’s what I’ll do."
"What happens to the body?" Adam asked again.
"Well, once it’s sufficiently washed and disinfected, they dress it in prison garb, pull it out of the chair, then put it in a body bag. They place it on a stretcher which goes into the ambulance which takes it to a funeral home somewhere. The family takes over at that point. Most families."
Sam was now standing with his back to Adam, talking to a wall and leaning on a bookshelf. He was silent for a long time, silent and still as he gazed into the corner and thought about the four men he’d known who had already gone to the chamber. There was an unwritten rule on the Row that when your time came you did not go to the chamber in a red prison suit. You did not give them the satisfaction of killing you in the clothes they’d forced you to wear.
Maybe his brother, the one who sent the monthly supply of cigarettes, would help with a shirt and a pair of pants. New socks would be nice. And anything but the rubber shower shoes. He’d rather go barefoot than wear those damned things.
He turned and walked slowly to Adam’s end of the table and took a seat. "I like this idea," he said, very quiet and composed. "It’s worth a try."
"Good. Let’s get to work. I want you to find more cases like Jimmy Old from North Carolina. Let’s dig up every wretched and botched gas chamber execution known to man. We’ll throw ’em all in the lawsuit. I want you to make a list of people who might testify about the Meeks and Tole executions. Maybe even Moac and Parris. "
Sam was already on his feet again, pulling books from shelves and mumbling to himself. He piled them on the table, dozens of them, then buried himself among the stacks.
Chapter 19
THE rolling wheat fields stretched for miles then grew steeper as the foothills began. The majestic mountains lined the farmland in the distance. In a sweeping valley above the fields, with a view for miles in front and with the mountains as a barrier to the rear, the Nazi compound lay sprawled over a hundred acres. Its barbed-wire fences were camouflaged with hedgerows and underbrush. Its firing ranges and combat grounds were likewise screened to prevent detection from the air. Only two innocuous log cabins sat above the ground, and if seen from the outside would appear only to be fishing lodges. But below them, deep in the hills, were two shafts with elevators which dropped into a maze of natural caverns and man-made caves. Large tunnels, wide enough for golf carts, ran in all directions and connected a dozen different rooms. One room had a printing press. Two stored weapons, and ammunition. Three large ones were living quarters. One was a small library. The largest room, a cavern forty feet from top to bottom, was the central hall where the members gathered for speeches and films and rallies.
It was a state-of-the-art compound, with satellite dishes feeding televisions with news from around the world, and computers linked to other compounds for the quick flow of information, and fax machines, cellular phones, and every current electronic device in vogue.
No less than ten newspapers were received into the compound each day, and they were taken to a table in a room next to the library where they were first read by a man named Roland. He lived in the compound most of the time, along with several other members who maintained the place. When the newspapers arrived from the city, usually around nine in the morning, Roland poured himself a large cup of coffee and started reading. It was not a chore. He had traveled the world many times, spoke four languages, and had a voracious appetite for knowledge. If a story caught his attention, he would mark it, and later he would make a copy of it and give it to the computer desk.
His interests were varied. He barely scanned the sports, and never looked at the want ads. Fashion, style, living, fanfare, and related sections were browsed with little curiosity. He collected stories about groups similar to his – Aryans, Nazis, the KKK. Lately, he’d been flagging many stories from Germany and Eastern Europe, and was quite thrilled with the rise of fascism there. He spoke fluent German and spent at least one month a year in that great country. He watched the politicians, with their deep concern about hate crimes and their desire to restrict the rights of groups such as his. He watched the Supreme Court. He followed the trials of skinheads in the United States. He followed the tribulations of the KKK.
He normally spent two hours each morning absorbing the latest news and deciding which stories should be kept for future reference. It was routine, but he enjoyed it immensely.
This particular morning would be different. The first glimpse of trouble was a picture of Sam Cayhall buried deep in the front section of a San Francisco daily. The story had but three paragraphs, but sufficiently covered the hot news that the oldest man on death row in America would now be represented by his grandson. Roland read it three times before he believed it, then marked the story to be saved. After an hour, he’d read the same story five or six times. Two papers had the snapshot of young Adam Hall that appeared on the front page of the Memphis paper the day before.