Henry Seadlund

John Henry Seadlund (July 27, 1910 – July 14, 1938) was a 27-year-old woodsman, executed by the United States federal government in Illinois for kidnapping. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover called him "the nation’s cruelest criminal" and the "most cold-blooded, ruthless and atrocious killer" he'd ever encountered.

Early life Seadlund was born in Wisconsin, and his family moved to Ironton, Minnesota when he was a baby. As a child, he played on his school's hockey team and was an avid hunter who often hunted more animals than was legally allowed. Seadlund graduated from Crosby-Ironton High School in 1928. Not wanting to go through a lengthy trial, Seadlund pleaded guilty. He later said he preferred execution over a lengthy prison sentence. During the sentencing phase, Seadlund claimed that he shot Gray in self-defense, and then killed him and Ross to put them out of their misery.

"Ross grabbed his [Gray's] arm. . . . I . . . tried to get the gun," he said. We struggled around . . . but I got my finger on the trigger and pulled it. . . . I knew Gray was hurt. He was calling to me to give him a gun so he could kill himself. Ross wasn't making a sound. . . . I went back to the car for some blankets. I put one under Gray. Then I tied two others around Ross. . . . I couldn't tell whether his skull was fractured or not. I looked at Gray. There was no sign of life and he was bleeding from the mouth. I couldn't get him to talk to me. So I took the gun and turned my head and emptied it. I went back and looked at Ross again . . . and I thought he was dead. I shot him.

Prosecutors said that Seadlund simply got greedy and had wanted to keep all of the ransom money for himself. Jurors deliberated for 90 minutes before recommending a death sentence. Seadlund was executed in the electric chair at the Cook County Jail in Chicago, Illinois. Seadlund asked Severin E. Koop, a Minnesota undertaker, to attend his execution, saying he was sorry for what he'd done. Koop took Seadlund's body back to Minnesota, burying him next to his father, Paul Seadlund, at the Woodlawn Cemetery, two miles south of Ironton.

Seadlund was the seventh federal inmate executed under the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and, , last person executed in Illinois on federal warrant.