Willie Francis and Jefferson

Willie Francis

The Autumn 2005 issue of the Southern Review and the book Mozart and Leadbelly (2005) both contain Ernest Gaines' essay "Writing A Lesson Before Dying." Quotes from the essay come from Mozart and Leadbelly. In the essay, Gaines talks about the process of writing the 1993 novel. Originally, Gaines wanted to set the novel in the early 1980s. However, after speaking with Paul Nolan about the Francis case, Gaines' vision started to change. Gaines writes, "There were so many similarities [between the Francis case and his previous works]--the work, religion, the food that people ate, everything. The case Paul recommended could have happened in the parish where I grew up" (53). Looking at Gaines' other works, this comment comes as no surprise. Francis resembles characters like Proctor Lewis in "Three Men" and Marcus in Of Love and Dust; the only difference, however, is that Jefferson dies in the electric chair at the end of the novel. Proctor and Marcus both have the opportunities to get bonded out of jail, Jefferson does not.

When thinking about Francis' case, Gaines says, "If I put the story in the forties, there was so much material I could use. . . . I could use the church school for background, the church where generations of my folks had worshipped and where I had attended school my first six years. I could use the crop as background. . . I knew the food the people ate, knew the kind of clothes they wore, knew the kind of songs they sang in the fields and in the church" (54). In essence, as stated earlier, the Francis case could have occurred in the parish where Gaines grew up. Along with talking about these items, Gaines also discusses Gruesome Gertie and its reputation, explaining how it traveled from parish to parish and how the generator caused it to be heard all over town.

Gruesome Gertie

Looking at the Francis case and Jefferson, some striking similarities arise. The state accused both men of murdering a white man, both had state appointed attorneys who did not really defend them, both were nearly illiterate, both were judged by a jury of twelve white men (no women or African Americans), both were condemned to die in the electric chair, and both wrote narratives about their experience (Francis' "My Trip to the Chair" and Jefferson's diary in chapter 29). One read through Francis' pamphlet solidifies the similarities even more. Francis says he wanted ice cream for his last meal, a priest told him to "stand like a man," he says the sheriff and deputies treated him well, and he concludes by stating, "Mr. Montgomery says that in writing this I may have helped someone, somehow. I hope so" (16). Jefferson's diary, and the mere fact that he walks to the chair upright, accomplishes the same things that Francis hoped his pamphlet would.



For more information on the Willie Francis case and A Lesson before Dying, look at Jason Stupp's "Living Death: Ernest Gaines's A Lesson before Dying and the Execution of Willie Francis" in Demands of the Dead: Executions, Storytelling, and Activism in the United States (2012). In 1982, the DePaul Law Review carried Arthur S. Miller and Jeffrey H. Bowman's "'Slow Dance on the Killing Ground': The Willie Francis Case Revisited."

Gaines, Ernest J. "Writing A Lesson Before Dying." Mozart and Leadbelly. New York: Vintage Books, 52-62. Print.

Willie Francis and Gruesome Gertie

On May 9, 1947, Willie Francis sat strapped to Louisiana's traveling electric chair Gruesome Gertie for the second time. A little over a year earlier, Francis sat in the same chair. That time, however, the chair's operator, after a little too much to drink, could not hook up the chair to the portable generator correctly. So, Francis, receiving an initial electrical shock, failed to perish. One year later, and after a trip to the U.S. Supreme Court, Francis once again approached the chair in St. Martinville, LA, sat down, and awaited the shock. This time, the chair performed its duty and Francis died.

Francis' case, which Gilbert King wrote about in The Execution of Willie Francis: Race, Murder and the Search for Justice in the American South (2008), contains so many irregularities, apart from the botched execution, that it illuminates the problems that inhabited the judicial system in the Deep South during the mid-twentieth century. 


Accused of murdering Andrew Thomas in November 1944, Francis did not receive adequate council to mount a defense. Nine months after Thomas' murder, police in Port Arthur, TX picked up Francis and charged him with trafficking. They dropped that charge, after finding out that Francis did not have anything to do with it, then they kept him for a little while longer. During that time, Francis confessed to the November 1944 murder of St. Martinville pharmacy owner Andrew Thomas. The above confession, in Francis' handwriting, is from that incident. Francis admitted to killing Thomas again in the police car back to St. Martinville as well.

 During the trial, Francis' defense did not call any witnesses, contest the fact that the murder weapon became lost in transit to ballistics testing in Washington D.C., that fingerprints could not prove Francis' involvement, and they did not counter Thomas' neighbor who reported seeing a car with headlights in front of Thomas' house when she heard gunshots. Francis, as a fifteen year old African American male at the time of the murder, did not own a car or have easy access to one. The defense did not mention any of this. Instead, they just said they did not have any comments. 

Francis, between his two executions, produced a pamphlet entitled "My Trip to the Chair." The pamphlet recounts Francis' first trip to Gruesome Gertie's lap and what transpired afterwards. He does not talk about the murder of Andrew Thomas, but he does talk about being at peace and gaining the ability to stand like a man on his way to death. He concludes the pamphlet by saying, "Mr. Montgomery [who wrote the pamphlet] says that in writing this I may have helped someone, somehow. I hope so" (16). 

What does all of this have to do with Gaines? In the next post, I will discuss Willie Francis' influence on Gaines and A Lesson before Dying.