 Thus then tonight Jackie Cooper as star of the clock and the rope Then play produced edited and directed by William Spear Would you like to hear the old story about the innocent man facing execution and his last-minute attempts to get a pardon? How it feels when he doesn't get it Well, I can tell you all about it because that's my story There's a couple of different twists to it, of course. There always are The one thing that happened to me And now I keep away from I keep away from cities and buildings Buildings with the cells they call rooms and doors that don't always open. I Never buttoned my collar. You'll find out why They earn my living as a guide for hunting parties me Who couldn't find my way across the city park without asking a cop for direction? I Never sleep in door. I Can't and I can't stand clock Most of all, I can't stand clock It happened so fast. I told him it wasn't murder. It was self-defense Involuntary self-defense, you know like putting up your arm to protect yourself But it didn't work out that way in court That's the other difference with that told you that They convicted me they sentenced me to be hanged and They hanged me So a little gas to the rough tip down to some repairs that had to be done the next day take care of any transient overnight parking Then these girls started dropping in for gas every other night or so late I like their style. I was too shy to say anything. I guess she figured it She was set with a sort of little smile half turned in her teeth to watch me while I fill the tank Then she'd pay me and pull away with a funny look in her eyes As if she was getting a kick out of the way. I acted then one night instead of pulling away It's been paid me Oh, come on open up. What? I've been here 20 times You can say a word or two Hello I didn't know that you wanted me to You're a funny fellow Didn't look like I didn't want you to that Don't I know my looks anymore? Sure I guess you did my name is Henry Henry Gilford No steady girl Working here every night. Oh, I get one night off go to a dance Well, I'm off tomorrow night. You ever go to the Arcadia. They've got a good band there. I forget who it is this week Oh, I'm sorry tomorrow night is my night off. Oh, but I'll get off Arcadia closes at midnight all the big dance places close at midnight No, oh, no No, there's the all in They run late and have a pretty good little band in the booth That would be fine. I could pick you up at your job. No, no, I am I'm way up here in town and I have to drive my car back anyway Suppose I need to up the line. I'll be there in a little afternoons I'll be there. Okay. See ya. Oh say, what's your name? That next night around 1130 I've caught the trolley going out along Trapp Scott Avenue. The Mortarman was old Steve Hawthorne He'd known me since I was a kid and he'd rid me about my new gray suit Especially about wanting to get off at the owl in said I was stepping out in the fast company We got there in about 20 minutes and I started up the driveway kind of thrilled at the idea of a midnight date I was just starting up the steps of the end when I heard voices coming from a grove of trees to one side I find all the way out there who you meet nobody okay, but give me that you get Hey, hey, what's this guy you're gonna meet huh? Well, I think Carol both of you now. Hey, what's going on? Anyway? Get up run this guy's crazy crazy I'll handle him silly no no you get out of here. I want you want more huh? Well, I got it right here for you I Did it I guess say who who is he you would have done worse for you Well, I didn't know you had a steady fella. I thought when we made our date you didn't ask me He had no right hand to fear well Well, what do we do now mean about him? I'll take care of him. You mean leave him here with you. Well, he'll please go More trouble for you But he wasn't all right, he was dead I Knew about it hardly two hours later. No, she didn't come and tell me the police came and got him And they didn't learn about me from her either. They didn't know anything about her I mean I should like they didn't want to know You wrote out there in the probably what is your ride back? Wanted to think that's all sure because you weren't thinking about how maybe the motorman wouldn't remember taking you out there If you didn't ride back. No, why would I do that? I've known old Steve Hoffman all my life. Is that how you found us? You're not very smart. I'm not trying to be smart. Okay, so you hit him in self-defense and to save the girl Now what's the name? I Never got it. He didn't tell me you had a date with a girl. You didn't even know what her name was Yes, I asked her I've seen her often, but he didn't tell me are you sure there was a girl? Of course, who would I have the date with maybe just with a guy you killed? I never met him before I don't even know him. You just don't know anything. Do you? Well, I'll ask you a very simple question I'm sure you can answer this one. I'll try how much money to take off the man you murdered how much yeah How much and where is it this pocket will turn inside out you went from self-defense to help yourself It pushed me around some after that then take me to court and then back to myself Half the time I didn't know what was going on. They gave me a lawyer mr. Hall Bailey Hall He'd do the talking. He kept asking for things like reduced bail time for further investigation Continuances to find witnesses just sort of stalling all the time. I don't know why I Told him I didn't have the money for any bail and witnesses. There's only one. I wanted that girl But he kept on I was trying to hold up things and one day he told me I'd been indicted. I Knew what that meant her. It meant I had to go on trial For murder. That's bad boy bad I've done all I could to delay indictment and trial and I hope there's something that turned up But we're in for now We should give me something more to work on what do you mean this girl you can't even name I can't go in the court with just that the police will certainly never was a girl and there's no trace of her anywhere Well, maybe she'll show up Boy you've got a lot to learn mr. Hall. That's all I know. I can't help it Never mentioned the girl and just claimed self-defense for a fight the girl thing. That's so bad It makes your whole defense fool good Lord boy He made up a girl why didn't to make up a name look? I've been all through that with the police now I'm still gonna talk that way too. Maybe we better forget the whole thing Maybe they'll give me another attorney for none at all for right here. Easy boy. Easy. I'm sorry I popped off, but it isn't a new attorney. You need it's a new story I That's right You heard wrote out to be in that night my trolley was on the fourth or the fifth face the jury, please and talk louder Oh, I say I say I took you for to the end that night It was about ten after midnight Got out and started for the end. Did you notice anyone else around any girl for instance? Yeah No, no nobody else that'll be all thank you the defense may have the witness Soon as we started to talk to Dilford he confessed to striking the blows He talked about doing it himself defense and about a girl he had a date with a witness to fight Have you been able to trace this girl whose existence is claimed by the defendant? No, no trace of her at all No, sir. No trace ever at all and Then we come to the actual evidence gentlemen of the jury Where do we get the evidence from the witnesses and who is the state's principal witness? None other than the defendant himself But the defendant can prove his story He has a witness the girl who saw it all the girl he saved from a bad Would any girl be so heartless as to leave such a benefactor in the lurch when just the word would save him Why doesn't he appear? Why isn't he found? No, there is no trace of her not even a small-sized note In other words, she is behaving exactly as you would expect someone to behave who is not real But just a figment of a desperate man's imagination Defendant will rise Gentlemen of the jury. Have you reached the verdict? What is your verdict? We the jury find the defendant Henry Guilford guilty of charge of murder in the first degree. I My boss at the garage and the fellas who worked their days chipped in some money I had an uncle in West Virginia who sent Mr. Hall $50 in cash and a promissory note for another 50 And I guess Mr. Hall put up the money himself for a sentence Anyway, he kept appealing the case all the way up to the state's Supreme Court But it didn't do any good kept coming back to the original decision sustained Mr. Hall said All this time the court that kept changing the date the date. I was supposed to be hanged Now all of a sudden I knew there weren't going to be any more changes The last date that was it. I I Think I started to suffocate right then There was something growing in my throat that wouldn't let me breathe The evening of the next day McGill the deputy warden came into my cell with a couple of guards. It's only I was moving I Knew where it was down on the main floor Our old only three cells It was the last stop Just throw They have a team of two guards who live right in the cell with you the last few days One time a prison breaks down and shows a human touch Yes, or else they just want to make sure you don't go ahead and carry out the sentence on yourself Anyway, whatever it was I was grateful because now I was lonely. I was afraid Not afraid like a man, but afraid the way a child is afraid I was going someplace the last place and I was going alone The thing you feel most the last hours is the time a clock Remembering how often you wish it would hurry so you could get off work or out of school See your girl or go fishing you remember a million hours like that when six hours is all you got left Outside, you know, they're watching the clock, too Not like you are but they're watching it all the usual people concerned with an execution Doing the usual thing Your lawyer the warden the governor, maybe Paper man's guard the executioner. I know what every one of them was doing as they watched the clock that night He told me after now. I'll never forget it clock all over the state Chicken away my life ought to get some sleep warden. That's only five hours away. Yes. I I know I wish I could lose this pain in my chest. I Think I'll lie down here on the couch brother the wife Why should I call you warden? Oh? Make it an hour before him Five a.m. Yeah, this is really all Yes, I'm Who did it? Well, where have you been all this time? What? Yeah, yeah, look, you're not just some crook. That's I have to put I know I know it's for sick this morning. Where are you? All right. Wait for me. I'll be right down. We've got about two hours Take my reputation This is the girl There's a stay at execution. It's true sir. I swear to you. I've been in the east I just haven't heard about it so tonight, but it's just as he said it was And the money that was taken out of the dead man's pocket. I took it. I needed it now had to be right He's been my husband Very well rigid Yes, governor type out a stay of execution on the Guildford case for three weeks bring it in and out sign it You can take it down. All right. You'd better phone the warden to make sure though governor that boys only got about a half hour left Warden's office Yes, this is what Huh, oh Yes, governor Young gilford. Oh You don't say so. Why that splendid governor splendid Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I'll let them know right away. Yes. Oh McGill Captain of the warden get him up on the count. Yeah. Yeah. Call the doctor. Will you sure hey the phone's off the hum mind that call the doctor Yeah, I must have been a strain of this execution. I think he kind of like the kids. Yeah I'm 30 Well, I'll have to take over for the execution gentlemen gentlemen Now ten minutes to six in a few moments you will be admitted to the ground floor of block house a The scaffold has been erected and where the execution which you ought to witness as Paper men and members of the medical profession to take place We'll find rows of benches. Please take your seats quietly and any of the rows except the first It has been reserved for members of the medical examining committee We ask you to cooperate with us in our duties and to respect the solemnity of the occasion by moving quietly refraining from any loud conversation in the moment you enter until you leave That's all. Thank you. The minister was reading from the Bible I knew at this time they were coming for me. This was it then It was a group of guards. The deputy warden was with them. They opened my cell door One of the guards came straight up to me. He was carrying a leather strap with a big buckle on it. I Strip up. I told him strapping my arms behind me The ministry stopped reading for a moment to say something We'll go now Say something to the deputy, but he nodded his head at the men and we started to move The two guards who had been in the cell with me stood back and one of them reached over me Put his hand on my shoulder for a second. I tried to say goodbye I walked and realized I couldn't breathe very deeply though. I wanted to just short breaths While I could take the deputy turned around and looked at me He seemed nervous. That bothered me. I wish he wasn't so nervous When we got to a door in the corner through that then another door That was already open. I walked through. I was in a room full of men But my eyes went to something else There were the steps just ahead of me. I'm painted wooden steps. They led up to a platform From above that there Up there was I saw the rope in the position. The men in the room below me now They were looking up. There was a movement among them One of them had fainted fell off the bench and landed hard It was like in a dream. I wondered if he had hurt himself Then I felt something over my head and I knew the rope was being adjusted and another guard was in front of me He had a hood. He lifted it and it came down over my head Somewhere inside of me screamed again, but my lips were closed and I was saying to myself hurry hurry hurry Talk about the neck being broken and death coming instantly. No, not always That doesn't come for a long time For some minutes nearly 20 minutes for others it may be less But never under 12 minutes before the heart stops. You can check on that Me I was up only a few seconds They cut me down and the doctors worked on me right on the wheel stretchers. I was waiting to carry my body out No, I didn't lose consciousness And sometimes wish I had I sometimes wish I'd gone then instead of being brought back to remember every bit of those last hours There was a new trial after I was on my feet again, but I don't know what was good I was free. I saw the girl Judy. I know her name now, and I thank you Neither one of us knew what to say after that. So he just went Yes, and I never sleep indoors Never button my collar. I don't like building any building It's just stone and steel and holds you in. I Want to be out here where I can see the sky anytime I open my eyes And I open them off I think too much when they're closed. I Hear the clock the clock the clock