Add to ORKGThis photograph shows Sam Thomas, a 23-year-old man, of Hamilton County, Ohio. Thomas was electrocuted on October 26th, 1938 for the murder of Mr. Francis Rutz in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1885, the Ohio Penitentiary became the site of all executions for prisoners on death row; formerly, executions had taken place in the county where the crime was committed. In 1896, the Ohio General Assembly mandated that electrocution replace hanging as the form of capital punishment. Throughout the 1930s, the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio, displayed photographs of inmates who were sentenced to death. A total of 315 prisoners, both men and women, were executed in the electric chair known as “Old Sparky” between 1897 and 1963