First Execution Under New State Law
C.K. Champoux is executed at the state penitentiary for the murder of a Seattle variety singer.
C.K. Champoux was hanged at the state penitentiary in Walla Walla this morning. He had been convicted of the murder of Lottie Brace, a variety singer he had followed from Dawson, whom he fatally stabbed in the brain at a Seattle concert hall. This execution marks the first time a death sentence has been carried out in the state penitentiary under the new state law.
“This was the first penitentiary execution under the new state law.”
This reflects the era's shift toward centralizing capital punishment within the state penitentiary system, moving away from local, county-level hangings. It highlights the often brutal reality of early 20th-century criminal justice in Washington.
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