Floyd Loveless

Identity

Floyd Loveless was the person executed by asphyxiation-gas on September 29, 1944. He was known as Bert when he was in grade school in Indiana. He died at age 17, which made him the youngest person ever executed in Nevada and the youngest person ever executed at the Nevada State Prison.

Legal outcome

Floyd Loveless was executed at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City on September 29, 1944, before his eighteenth birthday. He entered the death chamber at 6:22 p.m. and six minutes later he was administered a dose of lethal gas. Just before 7 p.m., his body was removed from the chamber. His body was shipped back to Indiana to his family.

“I shot him because I was frightened. I did not intend to kill him and I did not plan to kill him. At the time of the struggle I was fifteen years of age. I am sorry for what happened and I did not mean to do what I did.”

Timeline

• September 29, 1944 — Floyd Loveless entered the death chamber at Nevada State Prison at 6:22 p.m.; six minutes later he was administered a dose of lethal gas; just before 7 p.m. his body was removed and shipped back to Indiana.
• August 20, 1942 — Floyd Loveless was convicted of killing Elko County constable A.H. Berning.
• August 15, 1942 — Floyd Loveless escaped from the Indiana Boy's Home in Plainville, Indiana.
• July (year not stated) — Floyd Loveless was placed in the home after having committed over twenty crimes including rape at gun point.
• 1942 (year stated) — Floyd Loveless’s father visited him once at the prison.

Background

Floyd Loveless was 15 when he escaped and murdered Berning. He was only 15 when he escaped from the Indiana Boy's Home and then murdered A.H. Berning.

He had been placed in the Indiana Boy's Home in July after having committed over twenty crimes including rape at gun point. People in his hometown assumed his mother, who walked in front of a train when Floyd was 3 years old, did it on purpose. Floyd Loveless’s father had been dishonorably discharged from the Army for a brawl in which a man was killed.

A teacher who knew him as Bert characterized Floyd’s father as “feared by residents of Stockwell as a desperate character.”

Floyd Loveless wrote to a couple in Reno who had taken an interest in his case, saying:

“Life is a word with so much meaning. I have a lot to learn yet.”

While in prison, the prison doctor found:

“an apparently normally apprehensive, gregarious, introverted youth.”

Floyd Loveless was 5-foot-7 and 148 pounds. He was big enough to be a pitcher and third baseman on the prison baseball team.

One hundred sixty-eight inmates signed a petition urging the governor not to kill Floyd. They wrote:

“He has been extremely popular with all the inmates here and with the prison personnel, has never given any of us trouble and has been nothing but honest to all of us.”

The offence

Floyd Loveless was convicted of killing Elko County constable A.H. Berning.

After being stopped in Carlin, Nevada, by Berning who was on the lookout for a stolen automobile, Floyd Loveless shot Berning twice and abandoned his body in the desert.

The court conviction involved first-degree murder, and Floyd Loveless was sentenced to die.

Investigation and apprehension

Floyd Loveless had escaped from the Indiana Boy's Home in Plainville, Indiana on August 15, 1942, and headed west with another inmate.

Floyd Loveless and Dale Cline made their escape out of the Midwest and drove across country. They stole many automobiles and burglarized several homes. The pair held up a service station in Nebraska.

Cline and Loveless separated in Nevada. Loveless stole a car and was stopped in Carlin, Nevada by Elko County constable A.H. Berning.

“Sorry, lad, the constable told him, but that car's stolen and I'm going to have to haul you in.”

When Berning opened the car door, Floyd shot Berning twice.

Arrest and detention

After Berning was shot and abandoned in the desert, Floyd Loveless was later convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to die.

Floyd Loveless was executed at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City on September 29, 1944, while he was 17 years old.

Trial

Floyd Loveless was convicted of first-degree murder of Elko County constable A.H. Berning. He was convicted on August 20, 1942.

Sentencing

Floyd Loveless was sentenced to die. After the sentence and before the execution, he explained:

The case drew petitions and requests for clemency.

Appeals

The case described execution of juveniles as unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. Floyd Loveless’s place in history was characterized as secure in that context.

Aftermath

After Floyd Loveless was executed, his grandmother, Mrs. L.B. Loveless, wrote to ask the warden if Floyd had ever mentioned where he should be buried. Her letter said:

“Did Floyd think we would have him brought home to be buried? We wanted to write and tell him we would, but we hated to discourage him. Up until the last day we didn't think any state could do a thing to so young a boy.”

His father had visited him once in 1942 and had not been back because he told the boy he couldn’t afford the gas and tires for another trip to Nevada.

Other details

Floyd Loveless’s escape followed his placement in the home after having committed over twenty crimes including rape at gun point.

A sequence of theft and assault was described as part of his earlier learning: by age 12, he learned how to steal a jar of pennies from a farmhouse when nobody was home; he learned how to swipe a watch from a local five-and-dime; when he broke in and somebody was home, he learned how to hit her over the head with a milk bottle to get away; at 15, he learned that when he found a gun in a bedroom and waited for Mrs. Knoth to come in, he could rape her while holding the gun in his left hand.

After the rape, he was sent to juvenile hall, where he was to remain until he was 21 years old.

A writer from California pleaded in relation to the national war situation and asked for the execution to be avoided. The writer said:

“Don’t kill him. Let him and all like him kill the common enemies of us all.”

People from all over the country wrote to Gov. E.P. Carville to beg him not to execute a child. One hundred sixty-eight inmates signed a petition urging the governor not to kill Floyd, and prison personnel were included in the petition’s praise.

Floyd Loveless’s grade-school teacher, Lawrence Thompson, asked that his sentence be commuted to life in prison. Thompson wrote:

“He is dangerous and I would not plead that he ever be turned loose on society again,”

and also described potential utility in prison:

“a useful member of the state prison population.”

Elko County District Attorney George Wright argued that Floyd had had opportunities for rehabilitation in Indiana, and that Floyd had escaped. Wright’s argument stated:

“We submit that defendant was in Indiana given a chance for rehabilitation - first probation and then reformatory, but the defendant was not amenable to correction - he escaped %E2%80%A6”

Floyd Loveless had written:

“I don't think we'll have any more games this year .”

and it was noted that “No ball game today” was written as part of the execution-period routine.