Carlos Frederick MacDonald

Carlos Frederick MacDonald, M.D. (August 29, 1845 – May 29, 1926) was a psychiatrist, and the chairman of the New York State Commission in Lunacy from 1880 to 1896. He was involved in the design of the first electric chair and examined Leon F. Czolgosz, pronouncing him sane enough to be executed in the electric chair after the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901. He was President of the American Psychiatric Association from 1913 to 1914. He was an expert witness at the trials of Harry Thaw and Harrison W. Noel. He was also an attending physician at the execution of William Kemmler in New York's Auburn Prison on August 6, 1890, the first execution using the electric chair.

He was a professor of mental diseases at the Bellevue Hospital Medical College from 1888 to 1896 and a lecturer at the Albany Medical College from 1892 to 1894. In 1901, MacDonald was asked to examine Leon Czolgosz who had assassinated President McKinley. MacDonald found the prisoner sane and attended Czolgosz’s execution in the electric chair. He attended the autopsy and published his findings in a report. In 1906, MacDonald purchased a private mental hospital, Falkirk Sanatorium, in Central Valley, New York, which he operated for many years.

He was president of the American Medico-Psychological Association now the American Psychiatric Association from 1913 to 1914.

MacDonald died on May 29, 1926, in Central Valley, New York.

Memberships He was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. He was a consulting physician at the Manhattan State Hospital. He was a member of the New York County Medical Society and the New York Medico-Legal Society.