Michael Phillips

Well, Major, what did you think of the hanging?

Looked very efficient.

The one thing I noticed was that there were a half dozen or more lawmen in there who had on cowboy hats.

They did not remove them when Charlie was killed.

And I also thought that wasn't quite right.

But in any case, I don't recall anybody saying anything.

We were silent while all of this was going on.

And

Charlie only spoke to say Allahu Akbar and he was dying when that happened.

It was obvious that he was scared to death.

I recall a meeting with an editor and they said, somehow they told me that there's a lady at the Capitol or a lady in the government in Austin, which is where I was living then, who was in charge of scheduling the executions.

So I called her up and she said, well, she didn't have any on the schedule, but she could give me the names of, it was either four or five executions.

people who would be first.

And one of them was Candyman,

The fellow who poisoned his own child, putting poison in some candy at Halloween.

Charlie was very alert.

passed on his feet, engaged.

He was not moping around sad.

He had a sense of humor.

He told me in the first interview I had with him that he was innocent and that this was racial discrimination, that they executed more blacks than whites.