After reviewing the case files for several years, the author would need more information before deciding if Thomas committed the crime for which he was convicted and executed.
Entrance to Hendricks Execution Site at the Château La Vallée, a fourteenth-century manor house. One witness to the execution (which occurred on Friday, November 24, 1944) who was interviewed by the author in 2011, stated that two “big American Military Policemen” allowed the condemned man to smoke a cigarette before he was led to the gallows. The author’s subsequent research of personnel files at the National Archives in St. Louis found that the two MP guards, escorting Private Hendricks that day, stood 6’0″ and 6’5″, respectively!
The crime scene is for James E. Hendricks. For the project, the author visited the crime scene or execution site for several dozen of the cases. In this instance, the farmhouse is still there; the door is still there; and the bullet holes are still there! There is no doubt that Hendricks committed the crime.
Mariano, a decorated tank gunner, was convicted of murder and rape; the crime occurred in April 1945 and he was hanged on October 1, 1945. Mariano murdered a woman, but given his record, he could have received life imprisonment, and maybe should have.
