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Old News Stories
Eula Elrod Thompson Pardoned, 1936

From The Atlanta Constitution
Dec. 10, 1936

TALMADGE FREES SIX LIFE TERMERS

Convicted Slayers Get Pardons;
Eula Thompson Included in Group.

Six life-term convicts, all convicted of murder, were freed yesterday by Governor Talmadge.

The group included Mrs. Eula Elrod Thompson, one of the first Georgia women sentenced to die in the electric chair, whose death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by Governor L. G. Hardman in 1930.

The woman's husband, Cliff Thompson, and a negro, were executed for the murder of Coleman Osborne, a Murray county country storekeeper, who was slain in an attempted holdup.

The case drew nation-wide attention during Governor Hardman's term. The chief executive, a student of phernology, visited the woman and her husband in the Fulton tower a few days before they were scheduled to be executed. Following his visit he said he had studied the features of both and from his study he determined that Thompson was guilty but that he was doubtful of the woman's part in the slaying. He thereupon commuted the sentence of Mrs. Thompson but declined to aid Thompson.

Sent to Chair.

Several days after the visit to the tower Thompson and the negro went to the electric chair.

Governor Talmadge granted the woman a pardon yesterday despite the fact that the prison commission declined to recommend clemency.

Other "lifers" freed by the Governor yesterday had received recommendations from the prison commission.

(Note: Remainder of article was devoted to other five who were pardoned.)

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