Executed by mechanical firing squadAndriza Mircovich was a 31 year old miner in Nevada and immigrant

Executed by mechanical firing squadAndriza Mircovich was a 31 year old miner in Nevada and immigrant from the small Balkan Kingdom of Montenegro.  When his cousin died in a mining accident, Mircovich received little of the inheritance.  Even though Mircovich was at the bottom of the list of recipients, he somehow felt that the executor of the estate, a fellow Montenegrin named John Gregovich, had somehow cheated him out of the inheritance.   On May 14th, 1912 Mircovich stabbed Gregovich to death with a dagger in full view of the public.  He was immediately arrested and charged with murder.Mircovich was convicted of the crime and sentenced to be executed.  At the time, condemned criminals had the choice to be executed by hanging or firing squad.  Mircovich chose the firing squad.  This posed a problem for prison officials when no one volunteered to be a part of the firing squad.  To solve this problem the State of Nevada built the first and only automatic execution machine.  It consisted of a tin shed with three portholes holding three rifles.  When used a guard would cut three strings simultaneously, only one of which operated the machine.  Once the string was cut a series springs would loosen, which moments later would fire the rifles.  Each rifle was sighted in before hand, but one of the three contained a blank cartridge so that the guard sighting it in didn’t feel as though he was mounting the killer rifle.On May 14th, 1913, a year after the murder of Gregovich, Andriza Mircovich was executed by the firing squad machine.  The machine worked perfectly, firing two bullets directly into the heart of Mircovich, killing him instantly.  The firing squad machine would never be used again in Nevada history.  During World War II the machine was donated to a scrap drive and melted down to produce materials for the war effort.  The three rifles of the machine are currently on display at the Nevada State Museum in Carson City. -- source link

More pics about