Episode 22: Donald Demag
Donald Demag was born in Burlington, Vermont in 1922. The oldest of five, he tended to find himself in trouble quite frequently growing up; he managed to rack up a laundry list of misdemeanors, including motor vehicle offenses and even grand larceny. Because of the latter charge, Demag was sent to a reformatory school at the age of 17.
Married young with a child and one more on the way, when Demag was 25-years-old, he committed the crime that would end up with him in jail. Desperate for money due to his unemployment and growing family, he decided to ask for a loan from a local harness shop owner, 81-year-old Francis Racicot. When the elderly man refused, Demag acted out in anger and beat him over the head with an iron shaker, killing him. Scoring less than $100 from robbing the harness maker, Demag was apprehended 5 days later and sent to trial.
As a result of contracting scarlet fever as a toddler, Demag was deaf in one ear and also prone to seizures. It is believed that because of this, the jurors took sympathy on him and did not give him the death penalty, instead giving a sentence of life imprisonment. While he was in the Vermont State Prison, Demag was angry and itching to get out so he attempted to escape, and he was successful. He managed to cross over the Canadian border and get out of dodge. However, for some reason, he decided to cross BACK over to the United States and this is when he was apprehended. He was free for just 15 days.
When he returned back to prison, he became prison yard buddies with a man named Francis Blair, who was in jail for bank robbery. Together, one day in 1952, the pair seized an incredible opportunity. Some prison workers left a laundry van with the key in the ignition in the yard while Demag and Blair were outside. They jumped inside and drove through the steel gates of the prison, escaping and driving until they ran out of gas in Springfield, VT.
Hungry and desperate for “normal” clothes, the two escapees found the house of an older couple, the Weatherups, deep in the woods. They entered, intending on getting food and clothes and causing no harm, when they woke up the occupants. Blair used an iron bar and severely beat the couple, killing Mrs. Weatherup. The crime scene was discovered quickly and the pair was apprehended and thrown back in jail. Eventually, they were both sentenced to die by electric chair. Francis Blair was executed on February 8th, 1954. Donald Demag was executed exactly 10 months later on December 8th, 1954, becoming the last man in Vermont State history to be executed.
Image sources:
newspapers.com - “Demag Executed”
crimescribe.com - “Vermont’s First and Last 20th Century Executions”