The Chamber Page #4

It's only a matter of time

before they get around to me.

I am sorry, but listen,

I think I might be onto something.

- Some leads from way back.

- Adam, leave it alone.

Lee, I really think I can save him.

Ever occur to you

he might not be worth saving?

You can't mean that.

All right, Adam,

you wanna know about the past?

I'll tell you about the past.

This was my tree.

My own laurel tree.

I was up there.

Your father was there...

with Quince.

They were eight, maybe nine.

And they were best friends.

They were fighting, and they made

so much noise Daddy heard

and come out to see

what all the ruckus was.

Go on, go on! Get away home!

Quince's father did day work for Daddy.

His name was Joe.

Daddy never was very handy

at mechanical things

so Joe fixed things for us, made things.

He was here, all the time.

So then Quince came back with his father.

My boy says you been beatin' on him.

They fought so hard, like animals.

At one point Daddy grabbed the rake...

and things got out of hand.

He knocked Joe over, Joe fell to the ground,

and he yelled for Quince to get his shotgun.

- Quince, get my shotgun!

- Sam told Eddie to get his. Eddie froze.

But Daddy made him go.

Joe was here.

Daddy was there.

Get in the house.

- Joe waited for his gun.

- Get!

He kept looking around.

Sam had his.

And then my dear, sweet father...

This was Mississippi...

in the early '50s.

Daddy said self-defence.

He was never even so much as arrested.

What were my dad and Quince

fighting about?

A toy soldier.

Eddie thought Quince had stolen it.

And that night he found it under his bed.

He took the weight of the world

on his shoulders.

And then he said

I had killed Joe Lincoln too.

Said if I had cried out for Daddy to stop...

no way would he have fired.

Not with his sweet baby girl watching.

Course, he was right.

It was my fault too.

Get away home.

Daddy never was very handy

at mechanical things...

Jesus.

The superintendent asked

if you'd thought about your last meal.

Special requests can take time.

Yeah, I want a bowl of Eskimo Pies

and French Market coffee.

It shall be done.

There's been five executions here -

you know of any problems with them?

Come on. They all died within 50 feet of me.

Everybody on the row knows

about every killing.

Tell me about Teddy Meeks, then.

Every detail.

They didn't know what they were doing.

Everything went wrong.

- Have you seen the chamber?

- Not yet.

There's a little room

where the executioner goes

to mix up his solution of sulphuric acid.

With Meeks, the executioner was drunk.

- Come on.

- He was drunk.

Anyway...

his first batch of brew didn't work.

Meeks held his breath

for as long as he could,

then he inhaled and nothing happened.

So they waited.

Meeks waited, the witnesses waited.

Slowly they turned toward

the executioner - who's waiting.

And cussing.

He finally goes back

and he mixes up another batch.

He pulls the lever and the acid drops down

where it's supposed to.

He pulls the second lever

that drops in the cyanide pellets.

Sure enough this gas

starts drifting upward...

to where old Teddy

is holding his breath again.

Then he finally...

He sucks in a whole noseful of it

and starts shaking and jerking.

There's a metal pole that runs from

the top of the chamber down to the bottom

and it's directly behind the chair.

And...

And just about the time Meeks got real still

and everybody thought he was dead

his head starts banging

back and forth against that pole.

Just beating the hell out of it, like that.

His eyes were rolled up in his head,

and his lips opened up real wide

and he was foaming at the mouth.

And there he was...

just banging the back of his head

against that pole.

It was sick.

How long did it take them to kill him?

According to the prison doctor,

death was instant and painless.

Packer told me it was the longest

five minutes of his life.

The guy convulsed and heaved

and pounded his skull for so long

that pieces of his brain

was flying out the top of his head.

How does this lever they pull

activate the cyanide canister?

- What?

- The lever! Is it hinges? Springs?

- I don't know.

- Is it just gravity?

How the hell would I know that?

Just thought you had an aptitude for this.

Well, sue me.

- I'm not mechanical.

- That's what Lee said.

But you were handy enough to build

a bomb to kill the Kramers.

Son of a b*tch. Is that what this is all about?

You must have stayed up

all night thinking of this one.

Sorry, bubba.

Hate to disappoint you

but bombs ain't that complicated.

It can't be that easy - I couldn't do it.

That's because you're not motivated.

By the time I did Kramer

I had it down real simple.

So just because you're an anti-Semite

you can build a bomb,

place it on the second floor,

light a fuse and get out with no risk?

Plenty of risk. Not much glory.

It was the first floor.

Bomb went off below 'em.

- Check the FBI report.

- I did.

- What did it say?

- Bomb went off below 'em.

Thank you.

Anything else I can help you with?

- How long was the fuse?

- For Pete's sake...

It happened a long time ago,

I'm an old man.

Get off my back here, will you?

I'm sure you can remember

killing two children.

Long enough for me

to get the hell out of there, OK?

Except for one thing - the bomb

didn't have a fuse, it had a timer.

- What are you saying?

- You weren't alone.

There's not a chance

you could have built a timing device.

The FBI searched your house, your garage,

and didn't find a single trace

of explosives anywhere.

Maybe they're stupid.

Maybe I was real careful

and didn't leave a trail.

Maybe someone else planted the bomb.

You have no idea what you're doing.

Just hear me out.

Sam couldn't construct a timer.

His bombs were crude,

they had fuses. This was different.

It was complex for back then,

it was timed to kill.

- OK, wait a minute...

- Sam did not plant that bomb.

Wait!

The Sovereignty Commission file on

Sam might say who made the decisions.

Adam, just stop this, OK?

Those files are sealed.

If your client won't sign,

you cannot move the court to unseal them.

- I bet you could get a peek at them.

- No.

- You wanted to help me.

- I am helping you.

- Maybe you need to do more.

- Well, maybe I can't!

If there's others

and you're involved in protecting them...

Are you threatening me?

I am pursuing the truth

by any means necessary.

Which includes politely asking for your help.

In addition to appealing cruel and unusual,

- I want to file a new motion.

- About time you focused on the law, bubba.

I never stopped, bubba.

But there is nothing I will not pursue

in order to get a stay,

including proving you're insane.

- I'm insane?

- That's right.

As a product of three generations

of Klan mentality

your indoctrination

into a world of hate born of irrational fear

resulted in diminished mental capacity

to determine right from wrong.

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