The Dark Story of the Nevada State Prison — The First Prison on Earth to Use the Gas Chamber
Solitary Redemption
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Nevada State Prison operated for 150 years in Carson City, Nevada. Built on a sandstone quarry in 1862, it held prehistoric fossils in its walls, ran the only legal prison casino in American history, and became the site of the first execution by lethal gas ever carried out on a human being.
On February 8, 1924, a man named Gee Jon was walked into a converted butcher shop inside the prison grounds. Thirty witnesses watched through a small glass window. Most of them were smoking cigarettes, believing the tobacco would protect them from stray poison fumes. What happened over the next ten minutes inside that improvised gas chamber would launch a method of execution adopted by eleven states, used on nearly 600 people, and eventually adapted for the gas chambers of the Holocaust.
This is the complete story. From Abraham Curry's Warm Springs Hotel in 1858 to the prison's closure in 2012. The quarry that built the Nevada State Capitol. The Ice Age fossil tracks carved out by inmates. The 1871 mass escape that left bodies scattered from Carson City to a California lake that still carries the name Convict Lake. The mechanical shooting machine built in 1913 because nobody would volunteer for the firing squad. Nevada's 1921 Humane Death Bill and the botched plan to gas a sleeping prisoner in his cell. The Bullpen, where inmates played blackjack and craps for brass tokens while the Kiwanis Club dropped by to join them. And the slow, quiet death of a 150-year-old institution that finally closed its gates in 2012.
Every wall in this prison was cut from the same quarry by the hands of the men locked inside. The stone built a state capital. It also built a death chamber. This is the entire story of the Nevada State Prison.
SOURCES AND FURTHER READING
Loren B. Chan, "Example for the Nation: Nevada's Execution of Gee Jon" (Nevada Historical Society Quarterly, Summer 1975)
Scott Christianson, "The Last Gasp: The Rise and Fall of the American Gas Chamber" (University of California Press, 2010)
Nevada State Prison Preservation Society: https://nevadastateprison.org
National Register of Historic Places Nomination: Nevada State Prison Historic District
The Mob Museum, Las Vegas: "Nevada Gas Chamber Chair Goes on Display"
Nevada State Museum (former Carson City Mint), Carson City, NV
VISIT THE PRISON
Nevada State Prison is preserved as a museum and historical site in Carson City, Nevada. The Nevada State Prison Preservation Society conducts guided history tours through the cellblocks, the quarry, the yard, and the gas chamber. The prison is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Visit nevadastateprison.org for tour schedules.
ABOUT SOLITARY REDEMPTION
We explore the forgotten institutions, abandoned cellblocks, and silent tiers of America's carceral past. From sprawling state penitentiaries to remote county jails, we uncover the architecture, the daily regimens, the personal tragedies, and the laws that built and broke these massive Big House-era beasts.
New videos every week. Listen to the audio experience on Spotify.
CONNECT
Subscribe: @SolitaryRedemption
Listen on Spotify: Solitary Redemption
#NevadaStatePrison #GasChamber #CarsonCity #PrisonHistory #AbandonedPrison #TrueCrime #AmericanHistory #DeathRow #CapitalPunishment #GeeJon #PrisonCasino #ForgottenHistory #SolitaryRedemption
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The Dark Story of the Nevada State Prison — The First Prison on Earth to Use the Gas Chamber
Solitary Redemption
17,997 views
Nevada State Prison operated for 150 years in Carson City, Nevada. Built on a sandstone quarry in 1862, it held prehistoric fossils in its walls, ran the only legal prison casino in American history, and became the site of the first execution by lethal gas ever carried out on a human being.
On February 8, 1924, a man named Gee Jon was walked into a converted butcher shop inside the prison grounds. Thirty witnesses watched through a small glass window. Most of them were smoking cigarettes, believing the tobacco would protect them from stray poison fumes. What happened over the next ten minutes inside that improvised gas chamber would launch a method of execution adopted by eleven states, used on nearly 600 people, and eventually adapted for the gas chambers of the Holocaust.
This is the complete story. From Abraham Curry's Warm Springs Hotel in 1858 to the prison's closure in 2012. The quarry that built the Nevada State Capitol. The Ice Age fossil tracks carved out by inmates. The 1871 mass escape that left bodies scattered from Carson City to a California lake that still carries the name Convict Lake. The mechanical shooting machine built in 1913 because nobody would volunteer for the firing squad. Nevada's 1921 Humane Death Bill and the botched plan to gas a sleeping prisoner in his cell. The Bullpen, where inmates played blackjack and craps for brass tokens while the Kiwanis Club dropped by to join them. And the slow, quiet death of a 150-year-old institution that finally closed its gates in 2012.
Every wall in this prison was cut from the same quarry by the hands of the men locked inside. The stone built a state capital. It also built a death chamber. This is the entire story of the Nevada State Prison.
SOURCES AND FURTHER READING
Loren B. Chan, "Example for the Nation: Nevada's Execution of Gee Jon" (Nevada Historical Society Quarterly, Summer 1975)
Scott Christianson, "The Last Gasp: The Rise and Fall of the American Gas Chamber" (University of California Press, 2010)
Nevada State Prison Preservation Society: https://nevadastateprison.org
National Register of Historic Places Nomination: Nevada State Prison Historic District
The Mob Museum, Las Vegas: "Nevada Gas Chamber Chair Goes on Display"
Nevada State Museum (former Carson City Mint), Carson City, NV
VISIT THE PRISON
Nevada State Prison is preserved as a museum and historical site in Carson City, Nevada. The Nevada State Prison Preservation Society conducts guided history tours through the cellblocks, the quarry, the yard, and the gas chamber. The prison is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Visit nevadastateprison.org for tour schedules.
ABOUT SOLITARY REDEMPTION
We explore the forgotten institutions, abandoned cellblocks, and silent tiers of America's carceral past. From sprawling state penitentiaries to remote county jails, we uncover the architecture, the daily regimens, the personal tragedies, and the laws that built and broke these massive Big House-era beasts.
New videos every week. Listen to the audio experience on Spotify.
CONNECT
Subscribe: @SolitaryRedemption
Listen on Spotify: Solitary Redemption
#NevadaStatePrison #GasChamber #CarsonCity #PrisonHistory #AbandonedPrison #TrueCrime #AmericanHistory #DeathRow #CapitalPunishment #GeeJon #PrisonCasino #ForgottenHistory #SolitaryRedemption