James Alderman

For the 13th-century Mayor of London, see James Alderman (mayor).

James Horace Alderman (in some sources Aldermon) (died August 17, 1929) was an alcohol smuggler during the prohibition era in the United States, and was known as the King of the Rum Runners. He was executed by the Federal government for the killing on the high seas of Sidney Sanderlin and Victor A. Lamby, U.S. Coast Guardsmen; and Robert K. Webster, a Secret Service agent off southeast Florida, near Fort Lauderdale.

The crime took place August 7, 1927. He was tried under Sections 272, 273, 275 of the U. S. Criminal Code. In January, 1928 he was sentenced to death by U. S. District Judge Henry D. Clayton. President Herbert Hoover declined clemency.

His hanging was initially scheduled to be carried out in the Broward County jail, but the County Commissioners declined, insisted a Federal hanging should occur on U. S. property (from 1924 all executions by the state of Florida were carried out by electric chair). Finally Alderman was executed on newly erected gallows in a metal hangar of the U. S. Coast Guard station near Fort Lauderdale. Media witnesses were barred from watching the execution.

Despite Florida's protest in this case, David Joseph Watson was later executed for the federal government in state-owned Raiford Prison by the means of electrocution.

References

• "Hangar Hanging". Time Magazine. 1929-08-26. Retrieved 2008-08-09. 
• The Federal Death Penalty, www.deathrowspeaks.info

External links

• James Horace Alderman collection, 1929, University of Miami Special Collections