A SPECIAL REPORT: EXECUTIONS

GHASTLY DETAIL: The last Orange County man executed by the state was barely a man at all when he was arrested for the sexual assault and murder of a 15-year-old Buena Park girl. Billy Rupp of Santa Ana, an assistant beekeeper, was only 18 when convicted in 1952. He was finally executed at San Quentin on Nov. 7, 1958. A story from then grimly describes: “Rupp trembled but said nothing as he went to his death. . . . He was strapped in the chair and the cyanide pellets were dropped in the vat of hydrochloric acid at 10:03 a.m. He was pronounced dead at 10:13 a.m.”