Juanita Spinelli

Identity

Juanita Spinelli was known as "The Duchess". She was first woman to die in San Quentin's gas chamber in 1941.

Juanita Spinelli was born October 17, 1889, as Eithel Leta Juanita Spinelli, in Kentucky.

Background

Juanita Spinelli led a San Francisco crime gang. She and her common-law husband, Michael Simeone, recruited a gang that included Gordon Hawkins, Robert Sherrard, and Albert Ives.

Spinelli and her associates drugged and murdered another member of their gang, 19-year-old Robert Sherrard.

Spinelli had once been a wrestler. At her trial, it was brought out that she had used her daughter, known to the gang as “the Gypsy,” as a sex lure to recruit other gang members and robbery victims.

The offence

Spinelli and her fellow gang members killed Robert Sherrard to prevent him from squealing about a murder.

In April 1940, the gang had also involved an earlier robbery and killing. A barbeque stand owner was shot and killed.

On April 14, 1940, the gang met for a picnic on the banks of the Sacramento River in Sacramento to discuss plans for later robberies. When Sherrard decided to go swimming in the river, the conversation turned to their concern about Sherrard talking too much about the robbery to his bar buddies in San Francisco.

The four other gang members decided to kill Sherrard so he would not be a liability to the gang.

Later that evening, at their hotel in Sacramento, Spinelli added chloral hydrate, commonly known as knockout drops, to a bottle of whisky and poured a drink, which she offered to Sherrard. When Sherrard became unconscious, Mike Simeone and Gordon Hawkins carried him to their car. Hawkins and Albert Ives drove him to the Freeport Bridge in Sacramento, where they threw him into the river to drown.

Spinelli also planned to make the murder look like a suicide, directing that Sherrard was to be clothed in his bathing suit, and his clothes neatly piled on the bank of the Sacramento River near the point where he entered the river.

The next day, Sherrard’s body was found.

Investigation

Police tracked down the other gang members. When arrested, Spinelli had the pistol used to murder the barbeque stand owner in her purse, with her fingerprints all over it. Witnesses stated it was Sherrard who killed the barbeque stand owner.

Arrest

The other gang members were arrested after police tracked them down. Spinelli, with her two pre-teen sons, Hawkins, and Simeone, were arrested shortly after in Truckee and returned to Sacramento for trial.

Trial

Spinelli was convicted of masterminding the killing and sentenced to die in the gas chamber.

The trial resulted in differing outcomes for other gang members:

• Gang members Hawkins and Simeone were also tried and given the death sentence.
• Albert Ives was found “innocent by reason of insanity” and was sentenced to an asylum for the criminally insane.

Sentencing

Spinelli was sentenced to die in the gas chamber.

After her conviction was upheld, she received a pair of reprieves before going to the chamber on November 21.

Appeals

Her conviction was upheld.

Outcome

Spinelli was executed in San Quentin's gas chamber on November 21, 1941. She was the first woman to be executed in California’s gas chamber.

A week later, on November 28, Mike Simeone was executed in San Quentin.

Hawkins and Simeone followed her to the death chamber a week later.

Albert Ives was found Not Guilty By Reason of Insanity and was sent to live out his life at the Napa State Asylum for the Insane.

Aftermath

There was “no record as to what happened to her three children.”

San Quentin Warden Clinton Duffy said:

“She was the coldest, hardest character, male or female, that I had ever known, and was utterly lacking in feminine appeal. The Duchess was a hag, as evil as a witch. Horrible to look at, impossible to like, but she was still a woman, and I dreaded the thought of ordering her execution.”

Just days before she was executed, she saw her 7-week-old grandson for the first and last time.

Before her execution, she cursed her jailers and the governor who declined a third reprieve, saying she hoped her “blood would burn holes” in those who condemned her.

Other details

Spinelli and her gang committed robbing a San Francisco barbeque stand. The proprietor was shot and killed.

After the gang met for planning, Spinelli and her associates drugged Sherrard and attempted to make the killing appear like a suicide.

Ives surrendered to police near Truckee and told them everything.

Spinelli walked unaided to the gas chamber with photographs of her three children pasted on her prison-issue dress above her heart.

She was nicknamed “the Duchess” by her fellow gang members for her haughty demeanor.

Spinelli was convicted of First Degree Murder (premeditated).

She was also described as an associate of Detroit’s Purple Gang. Other reports listed her as a member of “The Red Cap Gang”.

The gang’s activities included car thefts and at least one gas station hold-up that netted the gang $22.

She was said to have used her daughter, known to the gang as “the Gypsy,” as a sex lure to recruit other gang members and robbery victims.

A statement attributed to Ives during the Duchess’s murder trial was included:

“I never left the gang alone,” Ives testified at the Duchess’s murder trial. “There’d always be another guy with me.”

Other quoted statements included:

“There was a bunch of guys in the Duchess’s house one time and they were talking about the Purple Gang and ‘jobs’ and that stuff,” he testified. “They showed me two blackjacks and a gun and said I’d be hung if I talked. “I was going to put her in a Chinese hop joint so she would rot in six months.”

A statement attributed to Spinelli on the stand was included:

“I was afraid of what Al said was going to happen to my daughter,” Spinelli tearfully claimed on the stand. “He was going to put her in a Chinese hop joint so she would rot in six months.”

A statement attributed to Ives to police was included:

“Sherrod had seen me shoot Cash and started talking about it all the time,” Ives told police.

A statement attributed to the Duchess was included:

“Well, that settles it,” the Duchess said. “Bobby is going to die, and he is going to die right now.”

A statement attributed to Ives was included:

“We thought he was going to squeal,” Ives testified.

A statement attributed to Spinelli was included:

“I kind of liked that boy and wanted it to be a mercy killing,” she testified. “I agreed and put the drops in his whiskey.”

A statement attributed to the Duchess during her testimony was included:

“I poured these Mickey Finn — this solution into the cup that was on the dresser,” the Duchess testified. “And then Al and Bobby and Gordon came back in the room, and Mike poured the whisky out, and he handed Bobby a cup of whiskey.”

“Bob started stumbling around,” Ives confessed to police. “Mike started knocking the hell out of him. The Duchess started hitting him in the back of the neck. He was out.”

A statement attributed to Hawkins was included:

Hawkins, 21, admitted driving the car to the bridge, but denied throwing the boy into the river.

A statement attributed to Ives to authorities was included:

“They wre talking about some way to get rid of me, afterwards when we were driving toward Reno,” he told authorities. “They talked about a 700-foot cliff — that’s a nice drop.”

A statement attributed to Warden Clinton Duffy was included:

“It’s time – keep your chin up.”

‘OK,’ she replied and, entering the chamber, coolly took her seat in one of the chairs to await the end.

A statement attributed to Spinelli about her reprieve and execution threat was included:

she hoped her “blood would burn holes” in those who condemned her.