BOOKS: The Last Gasp: The Rise and Fall of the American Gas Chamber

The Last Gasp: The Rise and Fall of the American Gas Chamber details the history and development of the gas chamber as a method of execution in the United States. Author Scott Christianson explores connections between the gas chamber and the eugenics movement, as well as new evidence about Hitler’s adoption of gas chamber technology developed in the United States. Charles Lanier, Director of the Capital Punishment Research Initiative, said, “Scott Christianson has used his extensive experience as an investigative reporter, criminal justice official, historian, and scholar to probe one of the darkest and most neglected regions of American death penalty history—the story of the gas chamber. This book opens new doors and charts new territory in its gripping historical tale documenting the development and use of lethal gas as a method of execution in the United States.”

(Scott Christianson, “The Last Gasp: The Rise and Fall of the American Gas Chamber,” University of California Press, July 2010). Posted June 3, 2010. See Methods of Execution. Click here for more Books on the Death Penalty.