Arthur Gooch

Arthur Gooch (January 4, 1909 – June 19, 1936) was an American criminal. He is the only person executed under the Federal Kidnapping Act who did not kill the victim(s).

Crime Gooch was the only person sentenced to death and executed by the federal government of the United States for a kidnapping in which the victim(s) were not killed. Gooch and another man, Ambrose Nix, kidnapped police officers R.N. Baker and H.R. Marks in Texas on November 26, 1934, and released them in Oklahoma. Baker was badly injured after being shoved into a glass case, which then broke during the kidnapping. This made the crime a capital offense since the victims had not been released unharmed.

Nix was shot and killed while resisting arrest on December 23, 1934.

His last words were reported to have been, "It's kind of funny—dying. I think I know what it will be like. I'll be standing there, and all of a sudden everything will be black, then there'll be a light again. There's got to be a light again—there's got to be." Gooch was 27 years old at time of his execution.