Abstract
To obtain the data for this article, the authors reviewed the case files of all persons executed in California, in the gas chamber at San Quentin, from 1938 to 1963. The demographic data for this 25-year period present a complete statistical outline, from which emerges a composite portrait—the story of Johnny Cain. Cain is both fact and fiction: fact in that he represents the statistical average; fiction in that there is no Johnny Cain. This article provides the reader with insight into the persons executed by the nation's most populous state.
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