Robert Keller - Dead Men Walking Vol. 1: 50 American Killers Who Were Executed For Their Crimes (Death Row Stories)

The case of James Donald French is a rather bizarre one, and not just because of his uniquely witty last words (more about that in a moment). French originally ended up in jail for the 1958 strangulation murder of a West Virginia man who picked him up while he was hitchhiking near Stroud, Oklahoma. No viable motive was ever offered for the murder. French, just 22 years old at the time and already the father of five children, had no history of violence. The judge may have taken that into consideration when sentencing him to life in prison, rather than death.

But French had no intention of spending the rest of his years behind bars. He briefly considered suicide but found he lacked the courage to take his own life. Then he hit on a new plan. He was going to force the state into executing him, by committing another murder.

Frenchs chosen target was cellmate Eddie Lee Shelton, a man he later described as stupid. Still, whatever his feelings about his intended victim, French was not about to let him go to his grave without the traditional last meal. On October 16, 1961, the day before he intended killing Shelton, he treated him to a steak sandwich from the snack bar.

The following morning French remained in his cell, while Shelton went down to breakfast. When he returned, French looped a towel around his neck, tightening it until Shelton passed out. Then French wrapped his knotted shoelaces around Shelton's throat and finished the job. When he was arrested for the crime a short while later, he immediately stated that he wanted to be executed.

But suicide by legal system is not quite as simple as that, as James French would soon discover. He would have to go through three trials before he eventually got the outcome he desired.

After the first conviction, French wrote letters to the appeals courts and the state Pardon and Parole Board begging to be put to death. His pleas went unheard after the appeals court overturned the verdict on grounds that the jury had been allowed to see French in chains and shackles. The second conviction was also thrown out after the trial judge was ruled to have given improper instruction to the jury.

By now, James French must have believed that he was never going to fulfill his death wish. But at a third trial, in 1965, he was again found guilty and sentenced to die. Again French wrote to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals stating he did not want any further legal action taken on his behalf. This time, the court complied with his wish.

James French was by all accounts an articulate and intelligent man, with a measured IQ of 117. While on death row, he authored a book on criminal compulsion, entitled We. He also wrote a book of poems. But his most famous utterance was the suggestion he gave to the journalists covering his execution at Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester on August 10, 1966. Hey fellers, French said to the assembled pressmen, How about this for a headline? French Fries!

Moments later, James French was led to the electric chair at finally got his desired outcome, courtesy of the 2,300 volts of electricity that coursed through his body.