Gerhard Puff

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gerhard Arthur Puff (died August 21, 1954^[1]) was a American gangster, executed by the federal authorities in New York for killing a federal agent.

In 1952 Puff traveled from Kansas City to Manhattan with his 17-year-old wife, Annie Laurie. By then, Puff's résumé as a bank robber had already earned him a spot on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List. Shortly after he arrived at the Congress Hotel, FBI agents waited to arrest him, but before they captured him, he shot and fatally injured one of them^[2].

For the murder of a federal agent, he was tried by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and sentenced to death^[3]. At the time, people sentenced to death by the federal government were executed by the method authorized by the state where the crime took place, so Puff was put to death in the Sing-Sing electric chair. He was one of the first people New York State Electrician Dow Hover was hired to execute^[4].

Puff was 39 or 40 years old at time of his execution^[5][6]..

Puff's execution was the fifth federal execution since President Dwight D. Eisenhower took office on January 20, 1953.

[edit] References