A historical image from my collection. So Capital Punishment is legal in 27 states, and five of them allow the firing squad. Tennessee in their great wisdom tried to put a woman to death yesterday but failed two attempts with injection…she is still alive as I write. Put me down for stopping the death penalty. I can’t see how thousands of poor souls overdose to death every year, but they can’t do it “right” institutionally. When I published this photo on the blog back in 2009, it was picked up by the great photography magazine Foam and published in a 2010 issue. My original post on the blog received comments from family members of the deceased despite it occurring more than half a century ago.
General Arnulfo Gomez "El Hombre Sin Vicios" had shaved to prevent recognition, but was tracked down nonetheless. Condemned to death in Tepcelo at one in the morning and shot as the sun rose hours later. He had two requests. First, that his eyes be covered. Second, that the command to fire be silent. The commander had no problem with either. He raised, then dropped a silent hat to signal. Gomez...Fue aprehendido y fusilado por las tropas federales en 1927. The Photographer is unidentified, as is the artist who cropped the photo with such a heavy hand the original image is all but gone. I imagine Mexican photographic facilities in 1927 were less than ideal. Was the film carried across the border to be developed and enhanced? Gomez is a footnote in the troubled history of Mexico. He is mentioned on page 222 of "Mexican Suite: A History of Photography in Mexico but I do not know if the working photographer who took this photo is mentioned anywhere.
“Newpapers were touching up photographic images for publication long before the fashion industry started slimming down models with an airbrush, but seldom has a press photo been so heavily embellished. The end of Arnulfo Gomez is an original press 1927 photograph capturing a firing squad precisely at the moment of death. Gomez is reported to have had one final request - that he not hear the command to fire. Granting his final wish, Col Manuel Limon, at right, silently drops his hat to signal his gunmen. A striking example of documentary photography and at the same time an example of extreme retouching”
It should be noted that Mexico BANNED the death penalty in 2005, and the last military execution occurred in 1961. In the United States, 21 states allow it. It is an abomination. January 2025, the incumbent signed an executive order to restore and accelerate the enforcement of capital punishment and authorizing firing squads. He had earlier purchased full-page newspaper advertisements in May 1989 demanding the return of the death penalty following an attack on a female jogger in Central Park, although the 5 suspects arrested were not guilty of the crime. They were released from prison when the actual Killer confessed to the crime years later. To this day, he has not apologized or altered his position on capital punishment.
"The end of General Arnulfo Gomez" Heavily embellished press photograph, 1927. Collection Jim Linderman
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