It started as a simple act of kindness on a lonely Georgia highway. In March 1925, Professor William C. Wright pulled his car over to offer a lift to two young hitchhikers, Ted R. Coggeshall and Floyd McClelland. He had no way of knowing that this gesture of southern hospitality would cost him his life.
Exactly one year later, on March 25, 1926, the state of Georgia exacted its final, grim price, sending both young men to the electric chair in Milledgeville.
While the newspapers of the day focused on the youths’ chilling bravado, reporting that they “laughed at death” until their final hours, the full story of this forgotten Jazz Age tragedy runs much deeper than the sensational headlines.
This complex case of desperate youth, a brutal crime, and swift Southern justice is meticulously deconstructed in Robert Turek’s gripping book, Murdered by the State of Georgia: The Execution of Theodore Coggeshall. It is a haunting look at a crime that shocked a nation and the legal machine that moved at lightning speed to take two lives in return for one.
Georgia Takes Two Lives for Death of Motorist
MILLEDGEVILLE, Georgia. — Ted R. Coggeshall, of Clayton, Illinois, and Floyd McClelland, of Brocton, New York, were electrocuted yesterday for the murder of Professor William C. Wright last March.
The two youths, convicted of killing Wright after the aged educator had offered them a lift on a lonely highway near Eatonton, Georgia, laughed at death up to a few hours before their execution and walked bravely to the electric chair.
Source: The Washington Daily News. Washington, D.C. March 26, 1926.
