Missouri State Penitentiary Gas Chamber - Jefferson City MO
Posted by: 
kJfishman
N 38° 34.323 W 092° 09.593
15S E 573184 N 4269622
Missouri State Penitentiary Gas Chamber - Jefferson City MO
Waymark Code: WMC3P3
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 07/21/2011
Views: 13
The old Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City MO has been closed for a few years and is partially torn down. A Federal Building is being built on part of the grounds. The prison was used from 1836 to 2004. It housed some infamous prisoners and had a population as high as 5000 inmates. The 2 seat gas chamber is part of the prison tour. The guide, a former warden, told us that only twice that he knew of were 2 people executed at the same time. This form of execution was considered very inhumane and the state changed to lethal injection. The last execution by gas in Missouri and the first execution by lethal injection took place here.
The building is visible from a parking lot that is entered through a hole they made in the old prison wall. We were told the parking lot was formerly used as a burial ground for inmates that died while in prison. No records were kept of the individual burial sites.
"Missouri Death Row
Capital Punishment in Missouri
Gas Chamber
In September 1937, Governor Lloyd Crow Stark signed a bill into law calling for execution by lethal gas. Prior to this criminals in Missouri were executed by public hangings, conducted by the Sheriff in the county were the crime was committed.
The gas chamber was located at the Jefferson City Correctional Center in a small rock building set apart from the main prison. The chamber area was built in 1937 at a cost of $3,570 and consisted of two small cells on one side of the room and the chamber on the other side.
One cell housed the condemned for the last few hours before execution. The second cell was used for mixing the sulfuric acid that was used in the execution. The cell contained the crocks used to hold sulfuric acid and later placed under the perforated chair. The leather restraints that were used to hold the condemned in the chair were also stored in the second cell.
In the center of the building was the air tight chamber painted white, with two perforated steel chairs. Beneath the chairs were guides to hold the three-gallon earthen jars which contained the sulfuric acid into which the cyanide pellets were dropped when a lever was pulled by the Warden.
After the execution the lethal gas was extracted from the chamber and vented out a forty-five foot pipe through the roof of the building... source (
visit link)
Tours of this historic prison are now offered see (visit link) for details. When we took the tour our guide was a former warden of the prison. Take this opportunity as the fate of the prison is unknown and could be completely torn down