#mabel monohan

Barbara Graham was born in 1923 in Oakland, California. As a teenager, she spent time at a reformatory and attempted to change her troubled ways. In 1939, she married but within two years, the marriage had fallen apart. She then drifted into sex work and eventually married a mobster by the name of Henry Graham.
It was Henry who introduced Barbara to Jack Santo, who was a gang leader.

 Barbara, her husband, Jack Santo, and two other accomplices - Emmett Perkins and John True - set out one night to rob a wealthy elderly woman, Mabel Monahan. Enraged that they could not find any valuables, they smothered and beat the elderly woman to death.

They were quickly apprehended and Barbara became known as “Bloody Babs” in the press. She was sentenced to death after John True testified against the group. She was told that she may receive a stay of execution, to which she replied: “I never got a break in my whole goddamned life and you think I’m going to get one now?” 

On 3 June, 1955, her execution was pushed back from 22:00 to 23:30, to which she said: “Why do they torture me? I was ready to go at ten o’clock.” She was led to the gas chamber and pronounced dead at 11:42. Her last words were:
“Good people are always so sure they’re right.”