Death Row: Life In The 1930's

The setting began where Paul was in the nursing home. ‘Georgia Pines’ the nursing home in which aged Paul Edgecomb tells the story of his time as a E-block supervisor on Death Row at ‘Cold Mountain Penitentiary’, is Flat Top Manor, a 20-room mansion built in 1901 for Moses Cone, a prosperous textile entrepreneur. It’s in the Moses Cone Memorial Park on the Blue Ridge Parkway at Blowing Rock, between Asheville and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The Manor is now the home of the Parkway Craft Center, which features handmade crafts by regional artists.
Paul began to reminisce back to his time at Cold Mountain Penitentiary in E block, in 1932. That time the Great depression was still going on; Louisiana had just begun to see economic recovery and

In 1932, the Cold Mountain state penitentiary’s only killing method is the electric chair. The E block is known as the Green Mile for its linoleum floor like a lime color. The block had 6 cells in total, each cell being twice as big as a regular cell. There inmates were accommodated even to the point that one of the inmates was allowed to keep a pet mouse in his cell even with those perks this was not the place inmates wanted to beat. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case in the actual 1930’s, Louisiana State Penitentiary was a home to many animals, but the cell block no one wanted to be at what was called Red Hat Cell block, This block were executions occurred. There were 30 cells measuring 3 by 6 feet. This place surreal, men who lived in Red Hat were treated worse than animals, some prisoners were not provided clothing while confided to their cell, cells were crawling with rats. Food was served on the floor. Now let’s talk about the electric chair, the electric chair was not introduced to Louisiana until early 40’s. Before then they punished the Death by