Paul Crump (April 2, 1930 – October 11, 2002) was a death row inmate who gained international notoriety and parole after writing the novel ''Burn, Killer, Burn''.

Crimes and prison sentences

Crump served 39 years in prison for killing a security guard in the armed robbery of a Chicago meatpacking plant in 1953. His four accomplices received prison sentences, but Crump was sentenced to die in the

electric chair An electric chair is a device used to execute an individual by electrocution. When used, the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes fastened on the head and leg. This execution method, ...

and had 15 execution dates before

Louis Nizer Louis Nizer (February 6, 1902 – November 10, 1994) was a Jewish-American trial lawyer based in New York City. He was the senior partner of the law firm Phillips, Nizer, Benjamin, Krim & Ballon. In addition to his legal work, Louis Nizer was ...

took on his case and the sentence was commuted to 199 years by Gov. Otto Kerner. He was paroled in 1993. He returned to prison after being convicted of harassing a family member and violating an order of protection.

Book

His novel ''Burn, Killer, Burn!'' is autobiographical and was published by the black-owned

Johnson Publishing Company Johnson Publishing Company, Inc. (JPC) was an American publishing company founded in November 1942 by African-American businessman John H. Johnson. It was headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. JPC was privately held and run by Johnson until his de ...

in 1962. It is about a murderer who commits suicide rather than be executed. ''Life'' magazine on July 27, 1962, featured a 4-page article on Paul Crump, "Facing Death, A New Life Perhaps Too Late".

Documentaries

William Friedkin William "Billy" Friedkin (born August 29, 1935)Biskind, p. 200. is an American film and television director, producer and screenwriter closely identified with the " New Hollywood" movement of the 1970s. Beginning his career in documentaries in ...

produced and directed a documentary for television titled '' The People vs. Paul Crump'' in 1962, when Crump had been on death row for nine years. The program was not aired, due to content regarded as controversial. Nizer's involvement with attorney Donald Moore in the legal battle to have Crump's death sentence commuted was the subject of

Robert Drew Robert Lincoln Drew (February 15, 1924 – July 30, 2014) was an American documentary filmmaker known as one of the pioneers—and sometimes called father—of cinéma vérité, or direct cinema, in the United States. Two of his films, ''Prim ...

's 1963 documentary ''The Chair''.

In song

Folk singer Phil Ochs wrote a song entitled "Paul Crump" that chronicled Crump's life. The song appears on three albums by Ochs: '' The Early Years'', ''

A Toast to Those Who Are Gone ''A Toast to Those Who Are Gone'' is a 1986 compilation album of recordings that Phil Ochs made in the early to mid-1960s, mostly between his contracts with Elektra Records and A&M Records. In line with recordings made on the former, Ochs espou ...

'', and '' On My Way''.

Death

Crump died of cancer at age 72, on October 12, 2002, at the Chester Mental Health Center in

Chester, Illinois Chester is a city in and the county seat of Randolph County, Illinois, United States, on a bluff above the Mississippi River. The population was 6,814 at the 2020 census. It lies south of St. Louis, Missouri. History Founding Samuel Smith is ...

References

1930 births 2002 deaths American prisoners sentenced to death 20th-century American novelists American male novelists Recipients of American gubernatorial clemency 20th-century American male writers {{US-novelist-1930s-stub