The Botched Execution of Cheerful Eva

Hanging was the only method of execution in Arizona for condemned inmates from the 1800s until the 1930s. That changed when an execution went horribly wrong, decapitating a woman.

The Life & Times of Eva Dugan

Eva Dugan was her name. She was the mother of a son and a daughter, whom she was forced to care for alone after her husband abandoned the family. A young 20-year-old woman, Eva, relocated from Salisbury, Missouri, to Juneau, Alaska, during the Klondike Gold Rush and worked as a cabaret singer and prostitute to support her kids.

She married five times as she wandered across the states. Three of the men disappeared under mysterious circumstances. One man left her for another woman. The fifth husband was found dead, but the circumstances surrounding his death were unclear (and remain that way), and no charges were ever filed against her.

Dugan Moves to The Mathis Farm

In 1926, Dugan’s children were grown. The now-mature woman relocated to Pima County, Arizona, where she found work as a live-in housekeeper at the home of elderly chicken rancher Andrew J. Mathis. He had served seven years in federal prison for his role in the lynchings of two Native Americans in Oklahoma in 1898. His anger and grumpiness sweltered as Mathis aged.

Nothing Dugan did suited Mathis. He had something snarky and rude to say. He hated her cooking, the way she kept house, and even the sound of her voice. The two fought like an old married couple; she refused to take his abuse and yelled back. Mathis eventually told Dugan she had to leave his home. He disappeared the same night, along with his vehicle and cash box.

Dugan Flees to New York in Mathis's Car

Neighbors told police Dugan had tried selling some of Mathis’s belongings before she vanished from the property. Authorities tracked down Mathis’s Dodge in Kansas City, Missouri, where Dugan had sold it. She was tracked down in White Plains by a postal worker who called the police. She wasarresed and extradited to Arizona on auto theft charges. She received a nine-month term and was sent to Arizona State Prison.

They still didnt know Mathis’s whereabouts at the time. Months later, a hunter found his decomposed body on his ranch. She was tried for his murder and convicted on mostly circumstantial evidence. At her trial, Dugan confessed that she had sex with Mathis weekly and worked as a prostitute at the ranch. She paid Mathis 50 cents for each act. She also claimed a man named Jack accidentally killed Mathis, although he vanished afterward. She said they loaded Mathis’s body into his car and dumped it. After her conviction, she told the court, “Well, I’ll die with my boots on an’ in full health. And that’s more’n most of you old coots’ll be able to boast on."

Cheerful Eva

Time Magazine gave Dugan the nickname “Cheerful Eva” due to her upbeat personality while incarcerated. She walked to the gallows completely composed at 5 a.m. on February 21, 1930. She told the guards, “Don’t hold my arms so tight, the people will think I’m afraid.” The noose was placed around her neck, and at 5:11 a.m., executionerssprung the trap. It dropped, the impact so forceful, the rope decapitated Eva and sent her head rolling to a stop at the spectator's feet. Blood spewed from her severed neck for several minutes—five witnesses fainted.

Eva Dugan was 52 years old.

Gas Chamber Introduced After Dugan's Execution

Three additional hangings occurred after Eva’s, although the state replaced this method of execution wth the gas chamber in 1934 and lethal injection in 1993. Dugan is the only woman ever executed by Arizona.

Sources:

https://azcentral.newspapers.com/article/the-arizona-republic-eva-dugan/44739748/

https://time.com/archive/6744301/crime-cheerful-eva/

https://tucson.com/1930-eva-dugan-hangs/article_9d234b60-c479-11e5-880c-37de6de20115.html

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/capital-punishment/on-botched-executions/A47BC2621F50FCA992EA52D270B95241

​https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-arizona-republic-eva-dugan-last-hou/4097637/