On a cold winter day, a mother and her infant son’s lives were brutally cut short in their home on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona. The date was December 8, 1935, when a young mother named Alice Gardner was murdered by her husband, Earl Gardner. Their son, a 27-day-old baby boy named Edward Gardner, was also killed by his own father.
The tragedy was the culmination of a history of violence that had haunted their family and the community.
Earl Gardner, a member of the Apache tribe, had a reputation for a fierce temper and was known to be abusive toward his wife. His violent tendencies were not new to the justice system. A decade earlier, in 1925, he had stabbed a man named Francis Knight to death during a fight that broke out after a drinking party on the reservation. Gardner later claimed he committed the act in a "drunken frenzy." Because the crime occurred on a Native reservation, it fell under federal jurisdiction. He was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 13 years in prison but was released on parole in 1932 after serving about seven years.
The peace of that December morning was shattered by a simple request. Alice asked her husband to look after their infant son, Edward, while she attended church. This seemingly ordinary domestic moment enraged Earl. He grabbed a hatchet and struck Alice multiple times. He then turned on his own child. In a chilling confession to police, Earl stated, "The baby was in my arms. I walk out of tent, put baby down, and struck once. I never look at baby." He then went back inside the tent and struck his wife again before throwing the hatchet on the ground.
Immediately after the horrific act, Earl Gardner turned himself in to a police officer, Salvador Grant. He confessed to the murders, explaining that he was not drunk this time but "just crazy" because his wife had asked him to care for the baby. He was charged with two counts of first-degree murder. During the legal proceedings, Gardner was disturbingly eager for his own demise. He attempted to plead guilty in December 1935, telling the court to "take a good rope and get it over with," expressing that it was better to "die like an Apache" than to slowly die in prison.
Despite his desire to plead guilty, the court proceeded with a trial. A first trial in January 1936 resulted in a hung jury. However, a second trial was held, and on February 6, 1936, after only 30 minutes of deliberation, the jury found him guilty. When the judge sentenced him to death a week later and asked if he had anything to say, Gardner’s response was, "I want you to get a good strong rope and have this happen immediately." His attorney filed an appeal against his wishes, but it was unsuccessful.
The execution was scheduled for July 13, 1936. At the time, Arizona had switched to the gas chamber for executions, but federal law mandated hanging. State officials, concerned about potential unrest, denied the U.S. Marshal Service's request to use the state prison. An improvised gallows was constructed from an old rock crusher near the Coolidge Dam. On the day of the execution, Gardner's last meal consisted of ribeye steak, fried potatoes, and watermelon. His final words were, "I guess I was nervous. Maybe scared. It won't do me any good to be scared now."
The execution itself was horribly botched. The noose slipped, and Gardner's neck did not break upon falling through the trapdoor. He struggled for over 30 minutes before finally succumbing to asphyxiation. The gruesome nature of his death prompted a public outcry and led Congress to pass a new law stating that federal executions would henceforth use the method of the state where the crime occurred. Earl Gardner became the last person to be legally hanged in Arizona, a grim end to a story that brought immeasurable pain to the San Carlos Apache community and left a permanent scar on the family of Alice and baby Edward Gardner.
