Henry Dingledine photograph

This photograph from the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus is of 28-year-old Henry Dingledine of Clark County. Henry, his father Harry, and Harry Chapman were convicted of murdering two Springfield, Ohio police officers. The three men were executed on the same night - Henry was the second of the three to die. The caption at the bottom reads: “No. 219, Henry Dingledine, of Clark County, Legally Electrocuted April 19th, 1939, for the Murder of Officers Martin Randolph and Edwin Furrey, at Springfield, Ohio.” In 1885 the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio, became the location for all executions, which previously took place in the various county seats. In 1896 the Ohio General Assembly mandated that electrocution replace hanging as the form of capital punishment. A total of 315 prisoners, both men and women, were executed in the electric chair known as “Old Sparky” between 1897 and 1963