George Sitts

George Sidney Sitts (October 29, 1913 – April 8, 1947) was an American serial killer executed by South Dakota for killing state Division of Criminal Investigation special agent Tom Matthews, who was attempting to arrest Sitts on a fugitive warrant from Minnesota. He was the only person to die in South Dakota's electric chair, and it would be over 60 years until the next time South Dakota would carry out an execution—Elijah Page via lethal injection on July 11, 2007.

Early life Sitts was born in Le Roy, Minnesota. He was regarded as a good student and was briefly an amateur boxer in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Sitts started committing crimes at 19, when he served 90 days in jail in Iowa for carrying a concealed weapon and receiving stolen property. Three years later, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for burglary in Minnesota. He was paroled in 1941, but returned to prison in 1944 for violating his parole. After being released from prison in 1944, Sitts moved to Portland, Oregon to get a job. He was married at one point in his life, but said he and his wife later separated.

After spending three weeks sawing on the bars of his cell in the Minneapolis city jail, Sitts and three other men broke out the day before Sitts was scheduled to be transferred to a state prison. South Dakota introduced the electric chair as the manner of execution in 1939 and Sitts was the fourth man sentenced to die in the chair. However, the three previous sentences, that of Clifford Haas (also known as Clifford Hayes), Paul Sewell, and Jacob Heinzman, were all reduced to life in prison on appeal. Haas became one of the longest serving inmates in the state and died in prison in 1993.

Sitts's final words were a wry joke to the 41 official witnesses. "This is the first time authorities helped me escape prison," he said right before the four shocks surged through his body at 12:15 a.m.

Special Agent Matthews name is inscribed on Panel 34 of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial located on Judiciary Square, Washington, D.C. Sheriff Malcolm's name is inscribed on Panel 53.