I was death row executioner & saw killer’s head burst into flames in electric chair – then everything changed
THE first two men Ron McAndrew executed died according to the script.
But number three went so horribly wrong he couldn’t bring himself to do it again.
Ron, now 88, never dreamed of being a correctional officer, let alone the man in charge of a state’s whole execution programme.
But in 1979 he found himself walking down to a prison near Miami in search of work – and was hired the same day.
Over the next ten years, Ron shot up through the ranks of officer, sergeant, lieutenant, captain, major, investigator, inspector, assistant warden and finally warden.
He was in charge of Florida’s largest prisons and enjoyed, in his words, a “wonderful career”.
Then, in 1996, came the call-up to Florida State Prison, the largest of the jails.
But there was something else that set the facility apart: it was home to Florida’s death row inmates.
This was the place Ted Bundy had been electrocuted to death just eight years earlier for abducting, raping and murdering dozens of girls.
Ron says: “I received a call from the Secretary of the Florida Department of Corrections, Harry Singletary.
“He said: ‘Ron, I want to send you to Florida State Prison, but I need to ask you a very important question. Will you have any problems carrying out the death penalty?’”
To this, Ron replied: “Absolutely not. I support the death penalty 100 percent. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”
Ron had been raised on the maxim of retaliatory justice – something he expected to take to the grave.
So he took the reins of Florida’s execution programme, responsible for appointing and training the death team, coordinating attorney and family visits, and handing the body to the undertaker.
He remembers the men he executed in “vivid” detail – everything from their dying wishes – which he has never shared – to their death row meals.
One condemned inmate, he recalls, ordered piles of hot dogs and two litres of Dr Pepper as his final feast.
The other prisoners had told him the liquid would make his electrocution less painful – which is not true.
Murderer John Bush was the first man he put to death in the electric chair – he was executed on October 21, 1996 for the 1982 killing of Frances Julia Slater.
Ron says: “After that first execution, there was something going on in my head that I couldn’t shake.
“I didn’t feel tortured or anything like that.
“But then there were two more electrocutions that followed. And the third was a day that I’ll never forget.”
Ron executed John Mills Jr, and then came Pedro Medina – a Cuban refugee raised on the streets of Havana without a family.
We didn’t electrocute this man. We literally burned him to death. His body was on fire and there was no way I could stop it. I had to let it run its course
Ron Andrew
After coming to Florida, Medina led a life of crime that culminated in the murder of his neighbour, Dorothy James.
Dorothy, a school gym teacher, had been gagged, stabbed and left to die – and Medina was convicted.
Ron read Medina’s case file and was convinced of his guilt, but also felt some sympathy at the man’s “sad story”.
Ron says: “His family was a little gang of boys that got together every day and found a way to get food. They begged tourists for money and did all sorts of things.
“In the evening they would all get together and put the money in a little basket, and make sure everybody had bread and cheese.”
On March 25, 1997, Ron’s preparations for Medina’s death had gone according to plan.
But the moment he pressed the button to pump in the current, it all went wrong.
Ron says: “We didn’t electrocute this man. We literally burned him to death.
“His body was on fire and there was no way I could stop it. I had to let it run its course.
Flames sprung from Pedro’s head, who was still alive, and an acrid smell filled the chamber.
Ron says: “The witnesses were aghast. It was a very, very sad day. And that’s the day I had to sit down and have a real serious talk with myself about what I was doing.”
Following the terrible mishap, the Governor realised that the prison would likely be stopped from using the electric chair, so he sent Ron down to Texas to learn about the lethal injection.
He worked on five lethal injection executions in Texas, all the while banned from writing anything down to avoid details leaking to the press.
Some people call it execution, but I’ve got a better name. It is premeditated, ceremonial, political killing. That’s all it is
Ron Andrew
Armed with his knowledge, Ron returned to Florida to set up the new system.
He purchased all the equipment – the gurney, the lines, the chemicals – needed to kill with injection.
But Ron says: “Once they were installed and I was standing in that little death room, I came to a conclusion: I can’t do this again. I’m not going to do this again.
“I called the secretary of the Florida Department of Corrections and said: ‘Sir, get me the hell out of here.’”
Ron was then transferred to the Central Florida Reception Centre in his old home, Orlando.
Dissecting his decision to walk away from Death Row, Ron says: “I decided it was wrong, period.”
Ron says: “I suddenly saw things very simply. We have a man here who may or may no be guilty. We have executed innocent people.
“He’s locked inside a six-foot by 12-foot concrete and steel cage where he has a toilet jacket and a sink and a bed.
“His food is delivery to him three times a day, and his laundry is taken without him leaving the cell.
“Twice a week he’s taken out of the cell in handcuffs and legs irons and put into a cell that has a shower, so he can wash.When someone is that secure they’re not going anyplace.
“To keep him on Death Row for 30 years, a 35-year-old man who is now 65, half blind, and with diabetes; to take him downstairs and put him in the death cell and hook him up to electricity and kill him?
“That is a horrible joke.”
“Some people call it execution, but I’ve got a better name. It is premeditated, ceremonial, political killing. That’s all it is.”
Ron thinks that life without parole is the better option for many reasons.
It leaves open the possibility of innocence, says, and the prisoner contributes to society by working 40 hours a week.
I learned a lot about myself and other, and definitely found the ability to have some peace within myself
Ron Andrew
Ron says governors use capital punishment as political tools for popularity, noting the spike in 2025 because it is an election year in many states.
According to Ron, politicians will deliberately time an execution just before an election to give them a boost amongst voters.
He says: “To sit behind a big mahogany desk and have someone give you a black-bordered piece of paper and plan their death with the stoke of a pen?
“That’s a cheap shot. A very cheap shot.”
Wrestling with the burden of his involvement in the death penalty, Ron was driven to 13 years of therapy.
He said: “I learned a lot about myself and other, and definitely found the ability to have some peace within myself.”
Peace or not, Ron says he “totally” regrets his work at the head of Florida’s death team.
Ron says: “If I could go back to 1996 in that little town of Wewahitchka, Florida, working at the Gulf Correctional, and had Harry Singletary call me, I would have told him: ‘Sir, that job is not for me.'”