Anthony Chebatoris

Title

Anthony Chebatoris

Background

Anthony Chebatoris (1898–1938) was executed by hanging at Milan Federal Prison on July 8, 1938.

Chebatoris’s first conviction for a crime was in 1918 for armed robbery in Detroit, and in 1927 he was arrested for violating the Dyer Act in Louisville, Kentucky. In 1928, he went to prison at Marquette for armed robbery.

In 1937, Chebatoris and fellow prison inmate Jack Gracy made plans to rob the Chemical State Savings Bank located in downtown Midland, Michigan.

The offence

On September 29, Gracey entered the Chemical State Savings Bank first with a sawed-off shotgun hiding under his long coat. Chebatoris followed Gracey into the bank. Gracey approached bank president Clarence Macomber and shoved the sawed-off shotgun into his ribs. Macomber and Gracey grappled with the weapon; Macomber forced the gun down while trying to push Gracey towards the front of the bank. Chebatoris, standing back from the fight, aimed his revolver at Macomber, wounding him in the shoulder. Paul Bywater, the head teller, came to the front counter to see what the commotion was about. Chebatoris took aim and fired at Bywater, shooting him in the stomach. Chebatoris and Gracy then fled the bank in their black two-door Ford.

After hearing gunshots, Dr. Frank Hardy, a dentist on the second floor of the bank building, grabbed a deer rifle he kept by the window in case of a bank holdup and fired at the getaway car as it sped towards the Benson Street Bridge. One of Hardy’s shots hit the driver and the car careened into another parked car along the road. Chebatoris and Gracy got out of the car and started looking for the shots, firing at the people they encountered. Mistaking Henry Porter, a truck driver from Bay City, as a police officer, Chebatoris fired his gun and seriously wounded Porter. Gracy tried to commandeer a truck, and Hardy shot Gracy in the head, killing him instantly. Chebatoris then ran along some railroad tracks and tried to get away by stealing a car, but was stopped by Sheriff Ira Smith.

Chebatoris was charged with attempted bank robbery and then murder when Henry Porter died 12 days later from his gunshot wound.

Investigation

Dr. Frank Hardy fired at the getaway car after hearing gunshots from inside the bank building.

Arrest

Chebatoris ran along railroad tracks after Gracy was killed and was stopped by Sheriff Ira Smith.

Trial

Chebatoris faced trial at Federal Court in Bay City, with Judge Arthur C. Tuttle presiding. His trial included a jury trial in which the jury of 7 men and 5 women found him guilty of murder.

The jury found Chebatoris guilty of murder on October 29, 1937. Chebatoris was sentenced to death under the National Bank Robbery Act of 1934.

Prosecution and defence

The United States District Attorney John Lehr argued for the death penalty, labeled Chebatoris a “brutal” and “sly” killer, and told the jury:

“this is not time for sympathy. You have the responsibility of protecting innocent American citizens against bandits, gangsters and ruthless beasts.”

Defense attorneys James Brooker and Dell Thompson, both from Bay City, did not refute the government’s case or call any witness to rebut testimony. Chebatoris did not testify in his defense. His attorneys argued against capital punishment as “a holdover from the Middle Ages.”

Judge Tuttle said:

“there won't be any hesitancy on my part in imposing the sentence, and I will always know, as long as I live, that no injustice has been done by the sentence.”

For security reasons, deputies took Chebatoris to the Saginaw County Jail, where guards kept an around-the-clock suicide watch over him.

Chebatoris told the guards hours after the verdict:

“You don't have to worry about me killing myself,”
“To hell with 'em. Let 'em kill me.”

Sentencing

Appeals

Governor Frank Murphy tried to get Chebatoris’s sentence commuted to life imprisonment or to move the execution to another state, arguing Michigan had no capital punishment. Murphy appealed all the way to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Judge Tuttle refused to change the location of the execution.

In 1963, the Michigan Legislature abolished capital punishment for treason.

Outcome

On July 8, 1938, Chebatoris was hanged at Milan Federal Prison at dawn.

On the morning of July 8, 1938, Chebatoris was hooded and hanged. He turned to speak to Phil Hanna, the man who brought the hanging equipment to Milan and was known as an expert in its use. Chebatoris asked Hanna:

“are you paid for this?'

Hanna responded:

“No, I am just here to make it easy for you. I am here to give you an easy death, and may God have mercy on your soul.”

Chebatoris smiled before a black hood was placed over his head at 5:07 in the morning. Smith pushed with both hands on an iron lever and a trap door sprung open; Chebatoris dropped 9 feet. Doctors checked his pulse four times and pronounced him dead at 5:21 a.m.

Twenty-three witnesses had waited for the news.

Aftermath

Gov. Frank Murphy condemned the execution as “uncivilized” and said:

“it's always the poor man who has no money or power who pays with his life, while another criminal may have committed an identical crime, but who is wealthy and powerful and escapes the chair or noose.”

Minnie Porter, widow of Henry Porter, did not want to see Chebatoris put to death and said:

“I don't feel that we have the right to say whether people could be killed. It isn't up to us. There is a greater judge.”

In a 1968 interview, Sheriff Ira Smith said:

“I did it for my county. It was my duty.”

During his time at the Saginaw County Jail, Chebatoris attempted suicide by slashing his left wrist and throat with a razor blade. Officers wrestled the blade out of his hand, and near death they rushed him to Saginaw General Hospital, where he recovered. Authorities then transferred him to the federal detention farm in Milan.

Other details

Chebatoris consumed socialist writings and was described as an avowed atheist. He had ignored a priest who walked with him and chanted prayers in Latin the night before the execution.