Execution of Arlen Bitterbuck

The execution of Arlen Bitterbuck, the first elder of the Washita Cherokee, on July 17, 1932, was the first electrocution Paul Edgecombe oversaw after John Coffey arrived on E Block. It was a technically smooth, professionally run event that contrasted sharply with the later botched execution of Eduard Delacroix, yet it also exposed the moral strain of the job and the dangerous incompetence of Percy Wetmore, who was relegated to the switch room for this occasion.

Causes and Background

Bitterbuck, a member of the Cherokee Council, had killed a man while both were drunk, crushing the man's head with a cement block over a pair of boots. He was housed on E Block alongside Arthur Flanders, known as The President, and was the first of Edgecombe's charges to face Old Sparky after John Coffey's arrival. The execution date was set for July 17, a rainy summer. Visiting hours for E Block prisoners were flexible, and on July 16, Bitterbuck was allowed to visit with his second wife and those of his children who would still treat with him in the Arcade, the long room adjacent to the cafeteria divided by mesh and barbed wire. He was escorted there by Bill Dodge and two floaters, leaving the rest of the guards to cram in at least two rehearsals for the execution.

The Rehearsal and the Role of Old Toot-Toot

The rehearsals were conducted with Old Toot-Toot, the trusty who ran the food-wagon, serving as the traditional stand-in for the condemned. Edgecombe found Toot-Toot's enthusiasm for the role distasteful, viewing him as an older, dimmer version of Percy Wetmore, a man too squeamish to kill his own meat but who loved the smell of a barbecue. During the rehearsal, Brutus Howell was "put out" to place the cap, monitor the governor's phone line, summon the doctor, and give the order to roll on two. The rehearsal included the full sequence: Edgecombe reciting the warrant, Toot-Toot walking the Green Mile, dropping to his knees in the office to pray, and then proceeding to the storage room where Old Sparky sat on its plank platform. Toot-Toot disrupted the solemnity with a lewd joke about wanting Mae West to sit on his face, causing Brutal, Dean Stanton, and Harry Terwilliger to collapse in laughter. Edgecombe sharply rebuked them, reminding them that a man would die there the next night. The rehearsal also revealed a curious observer: the mouse that would later be known as Mr. Jingles, sitting in the doorway with its tail curled around its paws, watching the proceedings.

The Execution Itself

On the night of the execution, Bitterbuck conducted himself with great dignity. His hands were shaking too badly to plait his braids properly, so his eldest daughter was allowed to do it, weaving them nice and even. She wanted to weave hawk pinfeathers into the tips, but Edgecombe refused, fearing they might catch fire. Bitterbuck left his cell without protest, walked strongly up the Green Mile, and dropped to his knees in Edgecombe's office to pray with Brother Schuster from the Heavenly Light Baptist Church. Schuster recited psalms, and Bitterbuck began to cry when he heard the one about lying down beside the still waters. Edgecombe noted that he liked to see them cry a little; it was when they didn't that he got worried. Bitterbuck got up without help, swayed slightly, and then steadied himself. As they approached the witnesses, Bitterbuck faltered, and a low moaning started in his throat. Edgecombe tightened his grip and told him, "The only thing most of these people will remember about you is how you go out, so give them something good—show them how a Washita does it." Bitterbuck glanced at him, nodded, and kissed one of his braids. He mounted the platform without help. From the moment he sat down to the moment Brutal called "Roll on two!" was less than a minute. The lights dimmed slightly as Jack Van Hay pulled the switch. Bitterbuck surged forward against the clamps and the restraining belt, his blue shirt pulling tight at the buttons. There was a smell, not bad in itself but unpleasant in its associations, that Edgecombe would forever associate with Cold Mountain. Van Hay gave him thirty seconds, then turned the juice off. The doctor listened with his stethoscope and reported "Disorganized," hearing a few random heartbeats. Van Hay rolled on three, and Bitterbuck surged forward again, twisting slightly. When the doctor listened this time, he nodded. It was over.

Aftermath and the Tunnel

After the execution, smoke rose from the hole in the top of the mask, and there was a horrible stench. Percy Wetmore, who had been in the switch room, cried out, "Aw, man! What's that smell?" Bitterbuck's left braid was smoldering. Edgecombe slapped at the head until the smoke quit rising. The body was carried down twelve wooden steps to the tunnel, a brick tube that ran thirty feet under the highway, with hanging lights and a curved, wet top. A gurney was waiting. As they loaded the body, Percy slapped the dead man's cheek and said, "Adios, Chief. Hope hell's hot enough for you." Brutal Howell told him, "He's paid what he owed. He's square with the house again. You keep your hands off him." Percy stepped back uneasily as Brutal moved toward him, but Brutal instead grabbed the gurney and pushed Bitterbuck toward the far end of the tunnel, where his last ride was waiting on the soft shoulder of the highway.

Significance

The execution of Arlen Bitterbuck was, by Edgecombe's own assessment, "a good one"—a proposition he strongly doubted existed. It was technically flawless, the condemned man dignified, and the witnesses left with a sense of closure. Yet the event was shadowed by the presence of Percy Wetmore, whose callousness in the tunnel foreshadowed the catastrophic cruelty he would later display. The execution also marked a turning point for Edgecombe, who felt himself getting too old for the job. The rehearsal, with its near-disastrous laughter, and the actual event, with its grim efficiency, underscored the dehumanizing routine of state-sanctioned killing. The appearance of the mouse during the rehearsal hinted at the strange, almost mystical events that would soon unfold on the Green Mile, events that would challenge Edgecombe's understanding of justice, mercy, and the nature of the men he guarded.