Documenting and Analyzing the History of Federal Executions
John Larkin
On January 19, 1838, John Larkin robbed the mail and killed the driver in Stockton, Alabama. When he was arrested months later in Philadelphia, he was found carrying papers that implicated him in the crimes.
Returned to Mobile, Alabama to strand trial, Larkin escaped from jail in March 1839. Recaptured, he was tried and convicted in April 1839 and sentenced to death.
I am a sociologist and death penalty scholar at the State University of New York at Geneseo. I am also a Pittsburgh native. My present research focuses on the history of the death penalty in Allegheny County (Pittsburgh), Pa.
This website is dedicated to collecting, analyzing, and sharing information about all Allegheny County cases in which a death sentence was imposed.
Please share any questions or comments, errors or omissions, or other matters of interest related to these cases or to the broader history of the death penalty in Allegheny County.
View all posts by Bill Lofquist
The Federal Death Penalty Project 