Andriza Mircovich

The shooting machine

The "shooting machine" was designed to be loaded with two lethal rounds and a blank cartridge, each connected to a coiled spring mechanism. The device could be fired by cutting three strings, only one of which would fire the rifles. This design would prevent the three randomly selected prison guards from knowing who would be responsible for triggering the lethal shot. On the morning of May 14, the three guards entered the firing area and then the 12 invited witnesses were admitted to a designated enclosed space in the yard. Mircovich refused an offer for a blindfold from Warden Dickerson and shook his hand, stating: "I much obligated to you. You be good man to me." Mircovich was then strapped to a chair bolted onto a platform in front of the machine. The prison doctor, Donald T. McLean, placed a heart-shaped target on Mircovich's chest. The aim on the loaded rifles was sighted on the defendant's heart, and checked by each guard. Mircovich cursed the name of Judge Averill and said "I die like a soldier" before he was shot to death.

Aftermath The rifles from the machine that shot Mircovich now reside at Nevada State Museum in Carson City. Doctor McLean declared that the death was instantaneous. An autopsy found the two soft-nosed ball cartridges within 2/3 inch (17mm) of each other in Mircovich's heart. Reverend Thomas conducted an informal service at the prison cemetery that afternoon. Mircovich's body was buried in a pine coffin on the same day.

In a 1915 report to the Nevada Legislature, Dickerson stated that despite his personal reservations, "executions by shooting are a trifle less barbarous than by hanging and have the further merit of eliminating many of the possibilities of bungling." However, the shooting machine was never used again and was placed in storage by the prison quarry. In July 1942, it was donated with 50 tons of scrap metal for a collection drive during World War II. The rifles from the machine were found during an inventory of the prison armory in June 1977 and were donated to the Nevada State Museum in Carson City.