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The Key West Citizen
Key West, Monroe County, Florida
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Hurbie Franklin Fairris Jr., a 22-year-old Dallas man convicted of killing Oklahoma City Detective Bennie I. Cravatt in a 1954 supermarket holdup, was executed by electric chair in McAlester, Oklahoma, after prolonged legal battles and denied clemency. His eyes and aorta were donated for transplants.
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MCALESTER, Okla. (AP) - Hurbie Franklin Fairris Jr., born of a Texas desperado family, died in the Oklahoma electric chair early today for the slaying of an Oklahoma City policeman.
The 22-year-old Dallas hoodlum proclaimed to the last his innocence of the death of Detective Bennie I. Cravatt, shot during an attempted supermarket holdup July 16, 1954.
Fairris' execution ended a long legal battle for his life. Numerous appeals and two reprieves by Gov. Raymond Gary delayed the electrocution. He was convicted Oct. 1, 1954, and originally was scheduled to die October 18, 1955.
Four final pleas for clemency were turned down yesterday, eight hours before Fairris went to the chair.
Fairris, pronounced dead at 12:08 a.m., was baptized into the Catholic Church just two hours before the execution.
The young slayer achieved one of his last wishes, expressed two months ago. Immediately after he was pronounced dead his body was rushed to the prison hospital where his eyes and aorta, the main artery leading from the heart, were removed. The eyes were then speeded to an eye bank - which demanded anonymity - by highway patrol relays and plane.
Arrangements had been made for a cornea transplant within 48 hours to restore some person's failing eyesight.
Fairris also had consented to removal of the aorta, which will go to the aorta bank in Oklahoma City, where sections are being transplanted successfully to prolong lives of persons with defects of the artery.
Fairris' father Hurbie Franklin Fairris Sr. lost a race against time and a winter blizzard in his effort to reach the prison before his son died. He had spent the day at the State Capitol in Oklahoma City pleading for his son's life, then started for McAlester, 135 miles away, by car.
Roads, made slick by snow which drifted over eastern Oklahoma highways, slowed his trip and the father called from Wewoka, about 60 miles away, about an hour before the execution, unable to make it.
Asked by Warden H. C. McLeod if he had any last words, Fairris grinned, waved and replied: "It's all for the kicks if that's the way they want it."
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Domestic News Details
Primary Location
Mcalester, Okla.
Event Date
Early Today
Key Persons
Outcome
fairris pronounced dead at 12:08 a.m.; eyes and aorta removed for transplants
Event Details
Hurbie Franklin Fairris Jr., convicted of slaying Detective Bennie I. Cravatt during a supermarket holdup on July 16, 1954, was executed in the Oklahoma electric chair after numerous appeals, two reprieves by Gov. Raymond Gary, and four final clemency pleas denied. He proclaimed innocence, was baptized Catholic two hours prior, and consented to organ donation. His father arrived too late due to blizzard.