America’s Sordid History of Filming Executions as Entertainment

In the annals of American cinema, a disturbing chapter recounts the filming of executions as if they were mere entertainment. This macabre practice traces its roots back to the dawn of motion pictures. In 1897, a Missouri farmhand named William Carr was convicted of killing his daughter and sentenced to death by hanging. Filmmaker Frederick Guth, affiliated with the American Phonographic Company, seized the opportunity to film the execution, creating "The Hanging of William Carr" — the world's first recorded execution.

The film premiered in Kansas City and St. Louis, later touring across the nation. In the following year, "An Execution by Hanging," featuring the hanging of Edward Heinson for criminal assault, premiered nationwide. These early films, though repulsive to some, sparked intrigue and uproar. The Phonoscope journal labeled the filming of Carr's execution as "revolting," while the Cleveland Leader warned of potential "brutalizing effects" on viewers.

Despite the outcry, the burgeoning cinema industry embraced a novel approach: blending reality with fiction in execution films. Filmmakers began combining real execution footage with fictional reenactments. For instance, Edison Studios, after failing to secure permission to film President McKinley's assassin, William Czolgosz's execution, opted for a combination of exterior shots and mannequin reenactments in "Execution of Czolgosz with Panorama of Auburn Prison" (1901).

This trend extended to other films, such as "Execution of Czolgosz with Panorama of Auburn Prison" (1901) and "Beheading a Chinese Prisoner" (1900), which showcased real and fictional elements. These early films, while controversial, paved the way for a long-standing tradition of using executions as spectacle in American cinema.