John C. Hawkins offers to donate his body, Los Angeles County, 1934

Item Overview

Title

John C. Hawkins offers to donate his body, Los Angeles County, 1934

Date Created

October 1934

Date

1934-10

Publisher

Los Angeles Times

Language

No linguistic content

Collection

Los Angeles Times Photographic Collection

Notes

Description

John holds the letter he's writing to Dr. Cornish in his lap, the other hand resting against his cheek and holding a cigarette. The bars of his jail cell can be seen behind him. It is a photograph of a photograph.
Photograph appears with the article, "Doomed Man Offers Body," Los Angeles Times, 19 Oct 1934: A2.
The 24-year-old has been convicted of the fatal shooting of Arnold McCord. Dr. Cornish has announced that he will reject Hawkins' offer because his life-restoring experiments are useless with a hanged man.

Caption

Text from negative sleeve: 3804 - John C. Hawkins deceased [stamped:] Feb 28 [illegible]
Text from newspaper caption: Offering his body, after he is hanged, for experimental purposes in life restoration, John C. Hawkins, condemned bandit-kidnaper, is shown in his jail cell addressing a letter to Dr. Robert E. Cornish at Berkeley.

Physical Description

Extent

1 photograph

Medium

b&w nitrate negative

Keywords

Genre

cellulose nitrate film
news photographs

Names

Hawkins, John C., b. 1909 or 10

Location

Los Angeles County (Calif.)

Resource type

still image

Subjects

Criminals--California--Los Angeles County
Cigarettes
Jails--California--Los Angeles County