The Only Pelham Criminal Ever to Die in the Electric Chair

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At 9:32 a.m. on July 29, 1940 Sheriff W. H. Lawrence of Palm Beach County, Florida, threw the switch.  For 55 seconds, 2,000 volts of electricity surged through the body of Herbert W. Goddard, Jr., former Pelham Heights resident, killing the murderer.  The life of the depraved kidnapper and killer thus ended.

Goddard was a son of Maj. Herbert W. Goddard of Parkway Drive in the Village of Pelham Heights, an Army officer, and spent a portion of his youth in Pelham.  Maj. Goddard and his wife divorced when Herbert Goddard Jr. was young, a fact that killer tried to assert as a partial excuse for his depraved life during a jailhouse interview on the eve of his execution.  Major Goddard and his son lived on Parkway Drive, a short one-block street in Pelham Heights that runs parallel the Hutchinson River Parkway and to Carol Avenue and that connects Hillside Avenue and Brookside Avenue in today's Village of Pelham.

Herbert W. Goddard, Jr. was arrested for the first time, for an unknown offense, at the tender age of 16.  He seems to have gravitated between a life of crime and a life, described as one of "brilliance," in the theater arts.  Perhaps due to this fact, he used a host of aliases in his life of crime.

During the 1930s, after he left his father and Pelham, he joined the Depression-era federal theatre project where he became a successful director of a variety of productions.  That New Deal program to fund theatre, live artistic performances, and entertainment lasted from 1935 until 1939.  At its conclusion in 1939, Herbert W. Goddard, Jr. left for Miami, Florida.

Among those he met in Miami were two high school age girls:  17-year-old Frances Ruth Dunn and her friend, Jean Bolton.  Goddard told the girls tall tales of his involvement in the arts and led them to believe he could secure movie roles for the young girls in Hollywood.

In August, 1939, the heartless killer lured the two girls on a "motor trip."  On August 8, he drove them onto a lonely road between Palm Beach and Boca Raton, Florida.  There he stopped and enticed the girls to a palmetto thicket where he attacked them.  He carried with him a hammer, a knife, and a gun.  He struck Frances Dunn with a hammer to knock her down.  He then shot and stabbed her, killing her.  

Jean Bolton escaped the scene, running for her life.  She eventually made it it to a telephone and called relatives in Miami who found her wandering on a highway north of Miami and took her safely home.

Goddard was captured and tried for first degree murder.  On Wednesday, September 27, 1939, a Circuit Court Jury in West Palm Beach, Florida convicted the murderer.  The penalty was death in the electric chair.  

That sentence was carried out on Monday, July 29, 1940.  As he sat strapped in the electric chair, Herbert Goddard addressed the parents of his victim seated in the witness chamber and said "I very humbly ask their forgiveness and the forgiveness of my God.  I want to say I am morally responsible.  I killed Francis Dunn. . . ."  Source:  Elder, Robert K., Last Words of the Executed, p. 149 (Chicago, IL:  The University of Chicago Press, 2010).  Shortly before Sheriff W. H. Lawrence of Palm Beach County threw the switch, the last audible words the killer uttered were "Goodbye Jean."

Though unsatisified, the family believed justice was served.  The man who is the only Pelhamite ever executed in the electric chair was dead.

"Herbert Goddard, above in a death-cell pose, paid yesterday

with his life for the kidnap-murder of Frances Ruth Dunn in

Florida.  Goddard, son of an Army officer, was first arrested at

16, 'reformed' and earned as high as $1,000 a week in radio work

before luring the Miami girl from her home."  Source:  MURDERER

DIES ASKING MERCY -- Goddard, Kidnap Slayer of Girl, Begs

Forgiveness in Florida's Chair, The Morning Herald [Gloversville

and Johnstown, NY], Jul. 30, 1940, Vol. XLIV, No. 106, p. 1, col. 2.

NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

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"GODDARD GUILTY OF MURDER; DEATH WILL BE PENALTY
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Herbert Goddard, former Pelham youth, was found guilty of a first degree murder charge by a Circuit Court Jury in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Wednesday night.  Goddard was charged with slaying 17-year-old Frances Dunn, whom he had lured into a palmetto thicket near Boca Raton on August 8.  The first degree murder conviction carries a penalty of death in the electric chair."

Source:   GODDARD GUILTY OF MURDER; DEATH WILL BE PENALTY, The Pelham Sun, Sep. 29, 1939, Vol. 29, No. 26, p. 1, col. 4. 


"Goddard Electrocuted In Florida Prison
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Herbert W. Goddard, Jr., former Pelham resident, who was convicted of the murder of a 17 year old girl near Palm Beach, Fla., was electrocuted at the Florida State Prison on Monday.  Goddard, who was the son of the late Maj. Herbert Goddard of Parkway Drive, lived in Pelham with his father in 1930."

Source:   Goddard Electrocuted In Florida Prison, The Pelham Sun, Aug. 2, 1940, Vol. 30, No. 18, p. 1, col. 7.

"Movie-Struck Girl's Slayer Dies In Chair
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Man Who Denied Part in Larchmont Case Was Ready for Death
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RAIFORD, Fla., (AP) -- Herbert Goddard, who lured seventeen-year-old Frances Ruth Dunn of Miami to her death by promising to get her into the movies, was executed in Florida's electric chair at State Prison here this morning.

Sheriff W. H. Lawrence of Palm Beach County, threw the switch.

The condemned man's last words were:  'Goodbye Jean.'

Jean Bolton, of Miami, a friend of Miss Dunn, also was lured on the motor trip in which Miss Dunn was attacked and killed.  Miss Bolton later was able to telephone relatives in Miami and was found on the highway north of Miami.

Glad To Die, He Says

When the death warrant was read yesterday to the twenty-nine-year-old man of many aliases and a career strangely mixed with artistic brilliance and crime, Palm Beach County Sheriff Lawrence quoted him as saying:

'Thank you, sheriff.'

A little later, the officer said, Goddard told him calmly, 'I have already suffered enough and I will be glad to see tomorrow come.'

Godard was sentenced to die for luring Miss Dunn from Miami to death on a lonely road near Palm Beach.  He had promised her and Miss Bolton careers in the movies.

Admits Shooting Girl

Instead, he testified at his trial, he attacked them, struck Miss Dunn with a hammer, knocked her down, then shot and stabbed her.  The other girl escaped. 

Going to Miami in 1939, Goddard had over-awed the girls with a reputation he had established as director of a federal theater project.  He told tall tales of his ability and renown in the theatrical business.

He was born in New York the son of an Army officer.  In an interview on the eve of his execution date, he blamed his life of crime on his parents' divorce early in his life and his lack of a normal childhood."

Source:   Movie-Struck Girl's Slayer Dies In Chair -- Man Who Denied Part in Larchmont Case Was Ready for Death, The Daily Argus [Mount Vernon, NY], Jul. 29, 1940, p. 3, cols. 5-6.

"MURDERER DIES ASKING MERCY
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Goddard, Kidnap Slayer of Girl, Begs Forgiveness in Florida's Chair
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RAIFORD, Fla. -- (AP) -- Praying for "the forgiveness of my God,' Herbert Goddard, killer of 17-year-old Frances Ruth Dunn, died in the state prison electric chair yesterday.

Goddard asked also for forgiveness from the parents of the Miami school girl, and, in his last minute of life, declared that he did not violate her honor before the slaying in a secluded beach section near Palm Beach.

The girl had been enticed from home with a companion, Jean Bolton, on promises of movie careers for both.

Goddard's last audible words before 2,000 volts of electricity smashed into his body were 'Goodbye Jean.'

Sheriff W. H. Lawrence of Palm Beach County, in which the crime was committed, threw the switch at 9:32 A.M., and the current coursed through Goddard's body for 55 seconds.

Miss Bolton, of Miami, a friend of Miss Dunn, also was lured on the motor trip during which Miss Dunn was attacked and killed.  Miss 
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Continued on Page 5

MURDERER DIES ASKING MERCY
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Continued from Page 1.
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Bolton later was able to telephone relatives in Miami and was found on the highway north of Miami in Palm Beach County.

In a three-minute statement before the current was applied, Goddard said that 'throughout this whole affair Frances (Miss Dunn) kept her honesty.  Mr. and Mrs. Dunn do not know this.  
'I very humbly ask their forgiveness and the forgiveness of my God.'

Source:  MURDERER DIES ASKING MERCY -- Goddard, Kidnap Slayer of Girl, Begs Forgiveness in Florida's Chair, The Morning Herald [Gloversville and Johnstown, NY], Jul. 30, 1940, Vol. XLIV, No. 106, p. 1, col. 2 & p. 5, col. 6.

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Home Page of the Historic Pelham Blog.
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