Gee Jon

Gee Jon (c. 1895 – February 8, 1924) was a Chinese national who was the first person in the United States to be executed by lethal gas. A member of the Hip Sing Tong criminal society from San Francisco, California, Gee was sentenced to death for the murder of Tom Quong Kee, who was a member of the rivaling Bing Kung Tong in Mina, Nevada. An unsuccessful attempt to pump poison gas directly into his cell at Nevada State Prison led to the development of the gas chamber.

Background
Gee Jon was born around 1895 in Canton to a Cantonese family. He immigrated to the United States between 1907 and 1908. He spent most of his life at San Francisco's Chinatown in California, though he was recorded as having briefly lived in the Chinatown area of Stockton. Gee became a member of the Hip Sing Tong society, which dealt in narcotics and liquor. In 1922, territorial disputes with the Bing Kong Tong society led to the outbreak of hostilities.

Murder of Tom Quong Kee
Gee Jon was ordered by Hop Sing officials to perform a gang hit on 74-year-old Chinese laundry proprietor Tom Quong Kee, who was a nominal member of the Bing Kong Tong. Hughie Sing, a 19-year-old from Carson City, newly recruited to the Hop Sing Tong and Gee's apprentice of two months, pointed Tom out as a target. They traveled to Mina from Reno on the 18th or 20th of August, reportedly being seen by deputy sheriff W. J. Hammill asking about work at the local Palace Café. By then Hammill had heard rumors that the men he had seen were Tong members in town to kill Tom Quong Kee and were pretending to be job-seekers on their way to Tonopah as a cover.

On the night of August 27, 1921, Gee and Sing knocked on the door of Tom's cabin, the former armed with a .38 caliber revolver. When Tom answered the door in his pajamas, Gee, who was standing behind Sing, killed the elderly man with two shots to the heart. Tom's body was discovered the next morning by one of his friends, reporting his find to justice of the peace L. E. Cornelius, who in turn alerted Hammill. After finding two sets of footprints at the crime scene, Hammill made a possible link to the presence of two strangers he had seen the week before. Gee and Sing were apprehended the same day in Reno after Hammill phoned chief of police John Kirkley about two possible murder suspects driving back from Mina. Their arrests were considered unusual, as other Tong killings typically went unsolved, with at least three additional murders with suspected Tong involvement being reported by the end of August. During interrogation, Sing confessed to his role in the murder and implicated Gee as the one to fire the killings shots, under the belief that this would lead to his immediate release from custody.

Trial and sentencing
Gee and Sing were defended by attorneys James M. Frame and Fiore Raffetto. Sing recanted his confession and entered a not guilty plea along with Gee. In February 1922, both were convicted and sentenced to death in the District Court of Mineral County, Nevada. Sing's sentence was commuted to life imprisonment because he was only nineteen years old and Gee had been the one to commit the shooting, also highlighting that unlike Gee, who was described as "an illiterate Chinese unacquainted with American customs", Sing had been born in the United States, was educated at a bilingual grammar school and had cooperated with the authorities; he was released on parole in 1938. A bill authorizing the use of lethal gas had passed the Nevada State Legislature in 1921, making Gee eligible to become the first person to be executed by this method. Frame argued that Gee's sentence constituted cruel and unusual punishment, but his appeal was denied. The Supreme Court of Nevada instead complimented the state legislators for "inflicting the death penalty in the most humane manner known to modern science". Raffetto unsuccessfully filed a writ of certiorari with the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. Gee was incarcerated in Nevada State Prison at Carson City.

Preparation
The California Cyanide Company of Los Angeles, California, was the only distributor of liquid cyanide in the western United States and refused to deliver it to Carson City over liability concerns. The poison was used to eradicate pests from citrus groves in California. Warden Denver S. Dickerson sent his assistant Tom Pickett to Los Angeles to personally pick up 20 lb of lethal gas, which was contained in a mobile fumigating unit that cost $700. Four guards who did not want to participate in the process had resigned. The officials first attempted to pump poison gas directly into Gee's cell while he was sleeping, but without success because the gas leaked from the cell. A makeshift gas chamber was set up at the butcher shop of the prison. At least one cat was used to test the lethal effectiveness of the chamber.

Execution
Gee Jon was executed in the morning hours of February 8, 1924. Gee, who had fasted for ten days before his execution date, agreed to have a last meal, consisting of ham, eggs, toast, and a cup of coffee. He was strapped onto a chair in the chamber, which was eleven feet long, ten feet wide, and eight feet high. A small window next to the wooden chair allowed witnesses to look inside. Attendees included news reporters, public health officials, and representatives of the U.S. Army. Gee wept as he was placed on the chair until the captain of the guards told him to "Brace up!" At 9:40 a.m. the pump sprayed 4 lb of hydrocyanic acid into the chamber. The weather was cold and humid. Because an electric heater failed, the chamber was 52 F instead of the ideal 75 F, causing some of the acid to form a puddle on the floor. Gee appeared to lose consciousness in about five seconds, with his head continuing to nod up and down for six minutes. He was completely motionless after ten minutes. Some of the witnesses momentarily thought they smelled the odor of almond blossoms, thought to be the odor of cyanide, leaking from the chamber. The warden had the witnesses cleared from the area. At about 10:00 a.m., a vent was opened, and a fan was turned on to discharge the poison gas. The prison staff waited for the remaining puddle of hydrocyanic acid to evaporate before cleaning up the chamber. Gee's body was removed from the chamber at 12:20 p.m. and taken to the prison hospital. A group of seven doctors pronounced him dead but did not conduct an autopsy on the body out of concern that some remaining gas could be released. Gee was 29 years old when he died and his body was buried at the Carson City Penitentiary cemetery.

Just after the execution, one of the physicians who examined Gee's body, Dr. Delos A. Turner, a Major of the U.S. Veterans' Bureau in Reno, asked for permission to perform medical experiments "in the interests of science." Turner wanted to inject Gee's corpse with camphor believing that it would bring Gee back to life. Dickerson denied the request.

Reaction
The Nevada State Journal proclaimed, "Nevada's novel death law is upheld by the highest court—humanity." However, the San Jose Mercury News printed, "One hundred years from now Nevada will be referred to as a heathen commonwealth controlled by savages with only the outward symbols of civilization."

Warden Dickerson reported to Nevada governor James G. Scrugham and the legislature his opinion that the use of lethal gas was impractical and that he thought execution by firing squad was still the best method of execution.