The Most Disturbing Human Experiments in History

Heartbeat Shooting Squad

John Deering was facing execution for murder. The prison physician, Dr. Stephen Bosley, figured that since Deering was going to die anyway, science might as well benefit from it. He wanted to find out what the heart goes through during an execution.He agreed to the experiment and so, on 31 October 1938, John Deering smoked his last cigarette, sat down in a chair, and had a black hood placed over his head. A target was pinned to his chest and electrodes were attached to his wrists.