Pious Service

To prove that its shocking picture of the electrocution of Gunman James Morelli three weeks ago was no fake, the Chicago Herald-American last week uncorked a full page of photos explaining how the trick was done. As pressroom gossips had suspected, Herald-American Photographer Joe Migon had pulled back the lining of his shoe, chiseled a hole in the heel big enough to hold a tiny (3 by 1 by 3/4 in.) Minox camera, then concealed it with the lining. Migon had thus carried the camera undetected past the X-ray eyes of the Cook County jail "inspecto-scope," which had looked no farther down than his ankles. Once seated at the execution, Cameraman Migon slipped off his shoe, fished out the camera and made his shot while the eyes of other witnesses were fixed on the dreadful scene at the electric chair.

By performing his stunt again last week, Migon convinced even Warden Chester Fordney, who had been sure the Herald-American's picture was a retoucher's phony. The Hearst paper explained that taking the picture had not been merely a ghoulish, sensational trick. It had actually, it said piously, been an act of purest public service. Migon's exploit, cried the Herald-American, proved that the jail's detection system "is NOT fool proof." If "guns and saws COULD BE SMUGGLED" into jail the same way, there might be "A WHOLESALE BREAK BY PRISONERS."

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