JACKSON, Ga. -- John Eldon Smith, 53, 'a very gentle man' whose wife convinced him he could be a hit man for the Mafia, died in Georgia's new electric chair Thursday.
'Hey, there ain't no point in pulling it so tight,' the short, bald, walrus-moustached killer protested mildly to the guards strapping him into the chair.
Smith's execution -- the second in two days in the South -- marked the increasing pace of executions in the United States.
Of the 11 men put to death since the Supreme Court lifted its death penalty ban in 1976, five have been executed this year. There are more than 1,250 others awaiting execution on the nation's death rows.
The Rev. Richard Wise, a Roman Catholic priest who accompanied Smith to the white-walled death chamber, said later that 'John Smith was a very gentle man. He meet death in a very brave way. He was a man of faith.'
But the brothers of one of his victims said the family was bitter that Smith's wife, an 'evil person' who convinced him he could make big money as a Mafia killer if he murdered her ex-husband, had escaped the death penalty.
Smith, wearing white prison denims and white socks, strode with a jaunty spring to the varnished wooden chair at the Georgia Diagnostic and Treatment center 50 miles south of Atlanta.
'My final statement will be made by Father Wise,' Smith told warden Ralph Kemp.
The gray-bearded priest read from second Corinthians:
'Indeed we know that when the earthly tent in which we dwell is destroyed, we have a dwelling prepared by God. Father, I abandon myself into your hands.'
Smith's head and face were covered by a leather veil and helmet and he was strapped so tightly to the chair that it was difficult for the 16 witnesses watching through a window to tell when the current slammed into his body.
His body tensed, his right hand curled upward and the hair on his arms and legs stiffened.
Kemp announced at 8:19 a.m. that 'At approximately 8:15 on Dec. 15, 1983, the court-ordered execution of John Eldon Smith was carried out in accordance with the laws of the state of Georgia.'
Smith died 30 hours after Robert Wayne Williams was put to death in the electric chair at Angola prison in Louisiana.
Smith was convicted of the 1974 shotgun murder of Ronald Akins and his wife, Juanita. His case was taken twice to both the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court within 24 hours of his death.
About 30 protesters carrying lighted candles in the frosty morning stood just inside the prison gates, singing hymns as Smith died. About 15 death penalty supporters stood by quietly.
In Calhoun, Ga., Otis 'Rocky' Akins, a brother of the victim, told reporters that 'We're not happy to see John Eldon Smith dead. We are happy to see that our justice system has carried out the law.'
But he said 'if there was fairness in our system, there would be no alternative but to ... get Rebecca Smith and execute her for the murders. We are quite bitter she has gotten off as lightly as she has. She is the most evil person I have ever dealt with in my life. She manipulated him, brainwashed him, convinced him to do this for her.'
Smith, a former New Jersey insurance salesman, sought no communication in his last hours with his wife, who is serving two life terms for the murders.
Smith maintained his innocence, but testimony from a third man convicted in the case showed that after Smith married the divorced Mrs. Akins, she convinced him the Mafia was looking for good killers and he could make big money as a hit man if he took an Italian name and proved his prowess.
He adopted the name Anthony Isalldo Machetti, the witness said, and carried out his wife's plan to murder Akins for his insurance, which was still in her name. The new Mrs. Akins was killed, according to testimony, only because she happened to be with her husband that day.
