His name was Jimmy Lee Gray, and a more perfect villain could not have been found on any death row in the country. He was a thirty-four-year-old white drifter from California who had been convicted of murder in Arizona when he was twenty years old. He served only seven years, was released on early parole, and made his way to Pascagoula where he kidnapped, raped, and strangled a three-year-old girl. He was caught, convicted, and sent to Parchman in 1976. Seven years later his luck ran out and state officials excitedly began preparing for his execution. On September 2, Parchman was swarming with law enforcement officials, reporters from around the world, and even a few politicians trying to wedge into the act.
At the time, the gas chamber had a vertical steel pole that ran from the floor to the top vents, directly behind the chair. As witnesses watched from crowded observation rooms, Gray was led into the cramped chamber, a cylinder barely five feet wide. He was secured by leather straps and left alone with the door open. The warden read the death warrant. Gray refused last words. The door was shut and locked securely, and the executioner began his work. There was no strap to secure Gray’s head, and as he breathed the cyanide he began thrashing and banging against the steel pole. He hit it repeatedly with the back of his head as he struggled and groaned loudly. Eight minutes after the gas was released, officials panicked and cleared the observation rooms.
Far from a swift and painless death, the execution was botched and it was clear that Gray suffered greatly. Several reporters described the scene in detail, one calling it nothing but “cruel and unusual punishment.” The State took so much flak it quickly switched to lethal injection, but only for those inmates sentenced after July 1, 1984.
When his time came, Hugh Malco would not be lucky enough to die peacefully by lethal injection. He had been sentenced in April of 1978, and the gas chamber was still waiting for him.
Because the men were in solitary confinement twenty-three hours a day, and showered and exercised alone, friends were hard to make on death row. Hugh never considered Jimmy Lee Gray a friend, but their cells were adjacent and they talked for hours daily. They traded cigarettes, canned food, and paperback books when they had them. Gray never had a dime but never asked for anything. Hugh was perhaps the wealthiest inmate ever sent to death row and was happy to share with Gray. A secretary back at Foxy’s sent him $500 a month, the maximum allowed, for better food and a few extras. No one else, other than perhaps his father, had access to such funds.
Gray’s execution, less than a hundred feet away, saddened Hugh far more than he expected. Like most inmates on the Row, he was expecting a last-minute miracle that would delay things for years. When Gray was led away, Hugh said farewell but was certain nothing would happen. After Gray died, his cell was empty for a week and Hugh missed their long conversations. Gray had a miserable childhood and was destined to have a rough life. Hugh had a wonderful childhood and was still asking himself what went wrong. Now that Gray was gone, Hugh was surprised at how much he missed him. The hours and days were suddenly longer. Hugh fell into a deep depression, and not for the first time.
The Row was much quieter following Gray’s execution. When the inmates heard what happened in the “Death Chamber,” and how the State had botched things, most were suddenly aware of what they might one day face. The joke around the Row had been that the State was too incompetent to kill an inmate, but that was over. Mississippi was back in the killing business and its leaders demanded more.
Jimmy Lee Gray’s appeals took less than seven years. Hugh’s had been active for only five, but his appellate lawyers seemed to be losing enthusiasm. With his enemies gaining power, he began to worry about actually being put to death. He had arrived at Parchman confident that his father’s money and contacts could somehow spare his life, perhaps even buy freedom, but a new reality was settling in.
* * *
If the execution cast a pall over the Row, it had little impact elsewhere around Parchman. Over at Unit 18, only two miles away across the cotton fields but a different world, life went on as if nothing had happened. When Nevin Noll heard the news about Jimmy Lee Gray, he actually smiled to himself. He was pleased to hear the State was finally back in the execution business. Maybe they would get to Hugh sooner rather than later.