BIRTH(+)FACT(᙮)DEATH(-)

41st year  -  N° 35                 Wednesday, 4 February 2026         Antwerpen		
Out in the Real World
BirthFactDeath (-)
Friday 19th of June 1936
90 years, 7 months and 15 days ago




Kidnapper Arthur Gooch is executed by hanging at the age of 26 in Oklahoma State Penitentiary, McAlester, Oklahoma, United States.


Gooch was the first and only person hanged for a non-murdering kidnapping under the Lindbergh Law. Oklahoma’s executioner Richard Earnest Owen was an old hand with his state’s electric chair, but the federal execution method was hanging, which Owen had never before performed (and never would again). Gooch took 15 minutes to strangle at the end of the rope for an audience of about 300.