About John Spenkelink
John Arthur Spenkelink (March 29, 1949 – May 25, 1979) was an American convicted murderer. He was executed in 1979, the first convicted criminal to be executed in Florida after capital punishment was reinstated in 1976, and the second (after Gary Gilmore) in the United States as well as the first involuntarily executed in about 14 years. == Background == At 12 years old, Spenkelink discovered the body of his alcoholic farmer father, who had died by suicide in his truck by carbon monoxide poisoning. He was arrested several times in his youth and was in and out of various jails and reform schools. He also married at 18. Spenkelink escaped from a California prison in 1972, where he was serving a five-years-to-life sentence for armed robbery of a fast food restaurant, five gas stations, and two people. On February 4, 1973, 24-year-old Spenkelink picked up hitchhiker Joseph E. Szymankiewicz and checked into a hotel in Tallahassee, Florida. The two had been on an apparent robbery spree. Following a heated argument, Spenkelink left the hotel room and upon his return shot Szymankiewicz in the back and beat him with a hatchet. Less than a week later, on February 9, Spenkelink was arrested on suspicion of armed robbery in Buena Park, California, and the murder weapon was found in an apartment of one of Spenkelink's associates.
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