Even in Arkansas, executions can be delayed by outside events. Messaline and Judith are held in the same cell on death row since there is only one.
There is little concern that the women find ways to pass the hours waiting for their hangings. The prison’s security cameras catch all their activities and the videos sold for good money on the web.
The real delay was caused by the crews having to move the gallows from the prison courtyard to the staff parking lot.
Warden Tree was not about to pay the workers overtime or the weekend rate if they worked Saturday or Sunday, and she wanted to wait till all the media arrived and the tickets for the event were all sold.
Meanwhile, Warden Joan Tree entertained herself performing ‘inspections’ of the condemned women. She took a special interest in Messaline, taking time to fondle her naked body under the guise of a medical exam. Messaline would protest Joan’s pawing at her body, though in reality she enjoyed the warden’s touch. Joan would feel and prod all over Messaline’s body, pausing to comment how good Messaline would look as she did her last dance as she hanged by her neck. Messaline would offer something more entertaining she could do with her body. Joan would say “I am the prison’s warden. I am here to make sure you are put to death being properly hanged. I am not here for your enjoyment!”
Joan did not let on she would love to have a few private hours with the condemned women.
Things did not go any better for Judith. While Joan Tree was busy fondling Messaline, a man named ‘Spike’ Sharp came to the cell Judith was held in.
“You Judith or Messaline” he asked as he lit a cigarette.
“I am Judith. Are you here to hang me” she asks.
“No, ma’am. I’m just a reporter from the
Crux Chronicle. We paid a lot of doe to get the live broadcast of your and Messaline’s hanging” Spike replies. “I thought it would make a better story if we had an interview with one or both of you.”
“Do you interview every woman you see hanged” Judith asks.
“Naw, most aren’t big enough news. But you and Messaline are a big deal. It ain’t often Arkansas hangs foreign women” Spike notes. “And you being French, your execution is an international story.”
Spike was allowed an hour with Judith. He asked her what she thought of her sentence (she did not understand why she was going to be hanged), is she afraid of being hanged (she did not know as she had never been hanged), and was she embarrassed about being brought naked to the gallows and hanged that way.
This is the first she heard about being naked when she would be hanged. With eyes wide opened in shock, Judith exclaims “Everyone will be able to see my body?”
“Yeah, but you should be happy you have a nice one. Is Messaline’s as good” Spike asks.
“I find it nice” Judith admits.
Spike asks to take pictures of Judith. She says she does not want her picture taken with a noose around her neck. Spike assures her that won’t be necessary as he wants images of her before she is hanged. He does not mention he would get enough of her and Messaline with the ropes around their necks when they are executed.
The guards put cuffs around Judith’s wrists and poses her in one of the prison’s corridors. She stand naked before Spike as he takes pictures of her naked body. Judith says “You have seen other people hanged?”
“Yeah, but not too many women” Spike acknowledges.
Judith curves her body and asks “Will I look good being hanged?”
“You’ll look great hanging by your neck” Spike says. He does not add he would like to screw her before she goes to the gallows…