On this day 83 years ago White Tollett was electrocuted at the Tennessee State Penitentiary.
His crime was setting off the dynamite that destroyed the home of Harmon Gouge near Elizabethton in January, 1938. That blast injured Mrs. Gouge and killed the couple’s three children, Sonia, Lucas and Roma Jean. Harmon Gouge was not at home at the time of the explosion.
The explosion was done in retaliation to the killing of Tollett’s brother, Arnold. Gouge was tried for that killing but was found to have acted in self-defense, thus, not guilty.
