Anthony Chebatoris was a bank robber and convicted murderer who is the only person to be executed in the U.S. state of Michigan since it abolished the death penalty in 1846. Chebatrois was tried under the Federal Bank Robbery Act of 1934 that made bank robbery, and its related offenses, federal crimes. Thus, his trial and execution were carried out by the U.S. federal government, and were beyond the jurisdiction of the state of Michigan.
Early life
Chebatoris was born in Poland and lived in Detroit at the time of the bank robbery. His first criminal conviction was in 1920 for armed robbery of a Packard Motor Car Company cashier in Detroit, and in 1927 he was arrested for violating the Dyer Act in Louisville, Kentucky. In 1928, he went to prison at Marquette, Michigan for armed robbery. By 1937, he had spent fifteen of his previous seventeen years incarcerated, and was wanted in Pennsylvania on suspicion of armed robbery. At the time of his death, he was divorced from his wife Catherine and had a married daughter, Mrs. Arthur Jackson.
Robbery and murder
On September 29, 1937, Chebatoris and his accomplice, 29-year-old paroled convict Jack Gracey of Hamtramck, planned to rob the Chemical State Savings Bank on Main Street in downtown Midland, Michigan; the weekly Dow Chemical payroll ensured the bank would be flush with cash. Gracey entered the bank first with a sawed-off shotgun under his coat; Chebatoris followed with a revolver. Gracey approached bank president Clarence H. Macomber and shoved the shotgun into his ribs. Macomber and Gracey grappled for the weapon until Chebatoris shot Macomber in the shoulder. Paul D. Bywater, the bank's cashier, approached the counter after hearing the commotion, and Chebatoris shot him in the abdomen. Both men would survive their injuries. Aborting the robbery, the gunmen fled the bank, got in their black two-door Ford with Chebatoris behind the wheel, and tried to drive away. Dr. Frank L. Hardy, whose second-floor dental practice was adjacent to the bank building, heard the gunshots and used a hunting rifle to fire at the getaway car from his office window as it sped towards the Benson Street bridge. One of Hardy's shots hit Chebatoris, wounding him, and the Ford careened into a parked car. Chebatoris and Gracey got out of the car, looking for the source of the shots. Truck driver Henry S. Porter of Bay City, whose cap and uniform were mistaken for those of a police officer, was shot and mortally wounded by Chebatoris. When Gracey tried to commandeer a truck, Hardy shot him in the head, killing him instantly. Chebatoris ran away along nearby railroad tracks and tried to steal a car occupied by one Levi Myer, but was apprehended by Midland County Sheriff Ira M. Smith.
Trial and execution
The Federal Bank Robbery Act of 1934 made it a federal crime to rob a federally-organized or federally-insured bank. It also made it a federal crime to cause the death of a person during the commission of such a crime. Chebatoris was initially charged only with bank robbery, but when Henry Porter died from his gunshot wound twelve days after the robbery, prosecutors also charged Chebatoris with murder. The trial was held in federal court in Bay City, with Judge Arthur J. Tuttle presiding. On October 29, 1937, Chebatoris was found guilty of murder under section 588c of the Federal Bank Robbery Act, and the jury, which had the option to bestow a death sentence, did so. Because capital punishment in Michigan had been abolished in 1846—the first English-speaking government in the world to do so—Governor Frank Murphy attempted to get Chebatoris's sentence commutedto life imprisonment, despite considerable public opposition. "Everyone knows is guilty," Murphy said. "I'm trying to prevent the federal government from erecting a scaffold and hanging a man in my state, where it hasn't been done in 108 years." When his request for commutation was rejected, Murphy argued the execution should be carried out in another state, but Judge Tuttle refused. Murphy appealed all the way to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, but was denied. Murphy stated that the execution was "a blot on Michigan's civilized record." Chebatoris was subsequently hanged at the Federal Prison Farm outside Milan, Michigan on July 8, 1938. He left his cell at 5:04 A.M. and began the walk to the purpose-built gallows accompanied by Rev. Fr. Lee Laige, who recited prayers. Chebatoris plunged through the trap door at 5:08 and was pronounced dead thirteen minutes later. Chebatoris was interred at Marble Park Cemetery in York Township after a Catholic ceremony attended by two brothers and a sister.
