# Have we ever executed an attractive female.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-ever-executed-an-attractive-female/646659
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 9, 2013, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-ever-executed-an-attractive-female/646659 "2013-01-09T19:48:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 18
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@ducati](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ducati)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2013, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-ever-executed-an-attractive-female/646659/41 "2013-02-26T23:12:05Z")
Well, it’s certainly a subjective call, but [Ethel Rosenberg](https://www.google.com/search?q=ethel+rosenberg&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=VmU&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=yDwtUbCyKIrm8gTulYHYAQ&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAQ&biw=960&bih=505) wasn’t exactly coyote-ugly, given the times…😃
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### Author:  [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2013, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-ever-executed-an-attractive-female/646659/42 "2013-02-26T23:42:08Z")
> [@Clark\_Cello](#):
>
> “to put to death especially in compliance with a legal sentence”
Shoot to kill orders is a legal sentence.
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### Author:  [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2013, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-ever-executed-an-attractive-female/646659/43 "2013-02-27T01:00:03Z")
They had to be careful, considering how well she handled a sawed-off BAR. You didn’t take chances with Bonnie OR Clyde, and if the cops could’ve nuked them from orbit they would.
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### Author:  [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2013, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-ever-executed-an-attractive-female/646659/44 "2013-02-27T01:16:02Z")
> [@conovox](#):
>
> Thanks. Funny, I write a little newspaper column here in town and I hear that too!
It applies all the more to on-line bulletin boards with generally shortish posts: Don’t Bury the Lead.
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### Author:  [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2013, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-ever-executed-an-attractive-female/646659/45 "2013-02-27T01:18:50Z")
> [@the\_diego](#):
>
> Shoot to kill orders is a legal sentence.
“Shoot to kill” is not a sentence at all. Or is it?
> [@dropzone](#):
>
> They had to be careful, considering how well she handled a sawed-off BAR. You didn’t take chances with Bonnie OR Clyde, and if the cops could’ve nuked them from orbit they would.
It would be the only way for sanctioned societal mores to be thoroughly achieved.
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### Author:  [@Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nunzio_Tavulari)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2013, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-ever-executed-an-attractive-female/646659/46 "2013-02-27T01:36:00Z")
> [@dropzone](#):
>
> They had to be careful, considering how well she handled a sawed-off BAR. You didn’t take chances with Bonnie OR Clyde, and if the cops could’ve nuked them from orbit they would.
There’s some debate on that point. There are no eyewitness accounts of her injuring anyone and some say that she never fired a weapon in anger. This was especially true after her right leg was badly burned in an auto accident. Their crime spree only lasted two years and she was incapacitated for the second. Towards the end, she had to hop around on one leg.
Clyde on the other hand, was a fine and eager shooter and nigh on invulnerable for a long time.
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### Author:  [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2013, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-ever-executed-an-attractive-female/646659/47 "2013-02-27T07:08:44Z")
> [@jbaker](#):
>
> Bonnie Parker did not photograph well, but eyewitness accounts are unanimous in describing her as attractive. The person in most of the photos in the link is an actress.
She had plenty of male suitors and would have had no difficulty having her dance card filled at a hootenanny.
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### Author:  [@Clark\_Cello](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clark_Cello)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2013, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-ever-executed-an-attractive-female/646659/48 "2013-02-27T12:52:24Z")
> [@the\_diego](#):
>
> Shoot to kill orders is a legal sentence.
I’ll use the old lawyerly argumentative method here (I forget what it is called) of “I don’t think you are right, and if you are, here’s why it doesn’t matter.” 🙂
1. No, I don’t think it is. A legal sentence is pronounced by a judge, through a court.
2. Even if it is, that doesn’t invalidate my point. My point is not that Bonnie and Clyde weren’t executed (though I do believe that they were not). My point was to refute Blakeyrat’s statement that:
“I’d say for sure she was executed. I’m not sure how you could argue otherwise.”
Whether you think she was executed or not, it is foolishness to say there is no argument that she wasn’t. There are arguments to be made on both sides, and to say that you can’t see how the other side could possibly argue otherwise shows a profound lack of imagination.
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### Author:  [@FrankJBN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrankJBN)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2013, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-ever-executed-an-attractive-female/646659/49 "2013-02-27T21:36:25Z")
First the restrictive definition of execution - never see the term ‘gangland execution’?
When the state in the person of any civil authority orders shoot to kill that is an extra-judicial order for execution.
As to Bonnie and Clyde, they were shot and killed by agents of the state, not in a gun battle, but in an ambush assault meant to kill them. If not execution, what?
I need the expanded definition to fit the post I came on to make.
Between 1884 and 1923, 76 black women were lynched or executed in the US. I’m sure some of them were attractive.
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### Author:  [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2013, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-ever-executed-an-attractive-female/646659/50 "2013-02-27T21:42:17Z")
> [@Clark\_Cello](#):
>
> I’ll use the old lawyerly argumentative method here (I forget what it is called) of “I don’t think you are right, and if you are, here’s why it doesn’t matter.” 🙂
Arguing in the alternative.
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### Author:  [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2013, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-ever-executed-an-attractive-female/646659/51 "2013-02-27T22:04:41Z")
Cervin: According to Wikipedia, Frankie Silver was hung july 12, 1833, in Burke County, N.C. I don’t think “Frankie and Johnny” was based on her death. In her novel, “The Ballad of Frankie Silver,” Sharyn mcCrumb agrees with me.
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### Author:  [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2013, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-ever-executed-an-attractive-female/646659/52 "2013-02-27T22:10:50Z")
You know, something occurred to me the other day that ties in to this thread.
At work, I have to see mug shots; lots of them.
Of thousands that I’ve seen, I’ve only run across maybe a couple dozen pictures of very attractive women, and less than 10 that were stunningly beautiful. This is taking into consideration that sometimes people don’t look their best after they’ve just been arrested.
The obvious question that follows, is “Are cops less likely to arrest hot chicks.” Also, “Are judges less likely to throw the book at beautiful women.”
Incidentally, I’ve seen many more pictures of men who would considered attractive, but that could be simply because men are more likely to be arrested, and young men are more likely do to dumb things. You’d have to ask the FBI about the numbers though.
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### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2013, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-ever-executed-an-attractive-female/646659/53 "2013-02-27T22:34:06Z")
Maybe it just means that there are very few beautiful women in the world.
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### Author:  [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2013, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-ever-executed-an-attractive-female/646659/54 "2013-02-27T23:56:31Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#):
>
> Irma Grese (aka The Beautiful Beast) was executed after WWII for war crimes. She was a fairly attractive woman but the things she did were just horrific. Her wikipedia pic isn’t particularly flattering but if you do an image search you’ll find more attractive pictures of her.
>
> Her war crimes were so horrific that it was difficult to have any sympathy for her at all, no matter how young and pretty she was.
Damn, that wasn’t easy to read. But just as disturbing was the _Mad Men_ episode that flashed into my head when I saw that [picture](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Irma_Grese.jpg), in which it’s revealed that Peggy Olson is an escaped Nazi war criminal. :eek: They could call the episode The Beautiful Beast.
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### Author:  [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2013, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-ever-executed-an-attractive-female/646659/55 "2013-02-28T01:37:16Z")
Those photos of Bonnie upthread are not great, she’s squinting in the sun. Her mug shot and a photo of her on her wedding day at age 16 show her to be rather pretty. (Blanche was pretty, too.)
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### Author:  [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2013, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-ever-executed-an-attractive-female/646659/56 "2013-02-28T01:47:14Z")
The three Manson women were young and attractive. Leslie Van Houten, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Susan Atkins all got the death sentence.
They were saved because California eliminated the death sentence. Otherwise all three would have been executed.
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### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2013, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-ever-executed-an-attractive-female/646659/57 "2013-02-28T03:59:51Z")
To be exact, California didn’t eliminate the death penalty. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned all death penalty laws and ordered the states to completely rewrite them. There were no executions in the years 1966 through 1976, inclusive.
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### Author:  [@Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nunzio_Tavulari)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2013, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-ever-executed-an-attractive-female/646659/58 "2013-02-28T04:10:02Z")
But the members of the Manson family were sentenced to death in 1971. The sentence was reduced to life imprisonment in 1972 when the Californian Supreme Court rendered all prior death sentences invalid. And yes, some of those girls were very good looking.
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