TENNESSEE GOVERNOR GETS EXTRAORDINARY REQUEST
Nashville, Tennessee (JFK+50) On May 12, 1923, Tennessee Governor Austin Peay* received an "extraordinary request from a girl in a little town in middle Tennessee."
She wrote...
"I am writing to ask you if I may have the privilege of being drugged to insensibility and electrocuted, or shot."
According to the Associated Press story published in The Evening Star, the girl expressed her "futile attempts" to restore her mental and physical health.
The letter concluded with these words...
"I have no one...to care for me. Life is no good. A person like this is better off dead."
*Austin Peay (1876-1927) was born in Christian County, KY & served as Governor of Tennessee 1923-1927. AP was TN's 1st governor since the Civil War to serve 3 consecutive terms & the 1st to die in office. He has been ranked as TN's #1 governor all time by TN historians in 1981.
SOURCE
"Girl Asks State To Kill Her, As Life Is Drear," The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., May 12, 1923, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/
