The executions list read first-hand — the Jones and Grzyb conflicts stand whole

May 7, 1897 · April 10, 1928

The banked items: The Crime file's two execution entries rest on a Department of Correction spokesman's 2005 account in the Tribune and on a compiled registry. This pass read the Department's own published list of past executions entire, and the two entries now stand against the official list at first hand.

Jones, 1897: The list's first row reads: "JONES, HARRY" — hanged May 7, 1897, aged 23, the offense dated July 5, 1896, sentenced January 7, 1897, the county St. Joseph, the crime murder. The compiled registry carries instead a Henry Jones, 27, a "convict," of Marion County, with a named victim, Homer Thomas; the Tribune's 2005 account said Harry Jones, 27, of St. Joseph County. The official list supports the St. Joseph County attribution and the name Harry, at age 23. It does not support the registry's victim — the registry's row describes a Marion County man, and Homer Thomas's name cannot be imported into the St. Joseph case. Who Jones killed, and where, in July 1896 remains unknown in the reachable record; his entry stays the Crime file's largest single gap, its routes the Tribune and News-Times microfilm of July 1896 to May 1897 and the Superior Court order books.

Grzyb, 1928: The list's twenty-ninth row reads: "GRZYB, JOHN (AKA: HALL, JOHN)" — electrocuted April 10, 1928, aged 22, the offense dated March 29, 1926, sentenced October 24, 1926, the county St. Joseph, the crimes murder in the first degree and robbery, with four stays recorded. The registry enters him under Elkhart, aged 20, sentenced October 3, 1926. The Tribune's 2005 account describes a St. Joseph County man convicted and sentenced in 1926 in Elkhart County. County, age and sentencing date stand in conflict across the official list and the registries, printed whole; and no carrier reached names Grzyb's victim or the place of the March 29, 1926 killing. Its routes remain the Elkhart County court record of 1926 and the Elkhart and South Bend backfiles.

Sources:

1. Indiana Department of Correction, the published list of past executions (in.gov/idoc) — read first-hand: row 1 (Jones) and row 29 (Grzyb) as quoted.
2. Gallagher's execution registry, as carried at Genealogy Trails and the Indiana capital-punishment history site — the Henry Jones and John Hall entries, with their counties, ages and dates.
3. South Bend Tribune, August 2005 (banked) — the spokesman's account: Harry Jones, 27, of St. Joseph County; the Grzyb account.