He asked for ice cream as his last meal. He spent his final days playing with a toy train. He smiled as guards strapped him into the gas chamber. Joe Arridy never seemed to understand he was about to die — because he was innocent, and no one had managed to make that clear to him either.
Who Joe Arridy Was
Joe Arridy was born in 1915 in Pueblo, Colorado, to Syrian immigrant parents. He had an intellectual disability, with an IQ later assessed at 46 — roughly the cognitive level of a six-year-old child, according to a psychiatrist who evaluated him. He struggled to speak in full sentences, couldn't reliably identify colors, and had spent much of his childhood and young adulthood in and out of the Colorado State Home and Training School for Mental Defectives in Grand Junction.
Those who knew him described him as easily led. Staff at the state home recalled other boys once talking him into falsely admitting to stealing cigarettes he hadn't taken.
The Murder of Dorothy Drain
In August 1936, 15-year-old Dorothy Drain was murdered in her Pueblo home, struck fatally with an ax while she slept. Her younger sister Barbara was also attacked but survived. The crime terrified the city, and police came under intense pressure to make an arrest.
Sheriff George Carroll found Arridy, then 21, wandering near local railyards and brought him in for questioning. Through a pattern of leading questions — including asking Arridy if he liked girls, then immediately following up by asking why he'd hurt them — Carroll obtained a confession. It was never formally recorded, and even prosecutors later acknowledged they'd had to “pry” the story out of him. Arridy's account of the crime shifted depending on who was questioning him, and he didn't know basic facts of the murder — including the weapon used — until investigators had already told him.
The Real Killer
The actual killer was almost certainly Frank Aguilar, a man who had worked for Dorothy Drain's father and was fired shortly before the murder. Aguilar was found in possession of an ax head matching the wounds, and Barbara Drain identified him as her attacker. Aguilar confessed to the murder — and said he had never met Arridy. He was convicted and executed in August 1937, more than a year before Arridy's own execution.
Despite this, local authorities remained convinced the two men had acted together. Even with three court-appointed psychiatrists confirming Arridy's severe intellectual disability at trial, he was convicted and sentenced to death.
Execution
Prison warden Roy Best later said Arridy was “the happiest man who ever lived on death row.” Arridy reportedly never grasped what execution meant. When told his death was approaching, he seemed more interested in his toy trains than in the news. Asked what he wanted for his last meal, he requested ice cream.
On January 6, 1939, after giving his toy train to a fellow inmate, Arridy was led into the gas chamber. Witnesses said he was smiling as he was strapped in. Warden Best reportedly wept.
Gail Ireland, the attorney who represented Arridy and later became Colorado's Attorney General, had written before the execution: “If he is gassed it will take a long time for the government of Colorado to live down the disgrace.”
Clearing His Name
Doubts about Arridy's guilt never went away. In 2007, a group called Friends of Joe Arridy commissioned a proper tombstone for his previously unmarked grave, engraved with the words “Here lies an innocent man.” Denver attorney David Martinez spent years building a case for a formal pardon, eventually submitting a 400-page petition to the state.
On January 7, 2011 — 72 years after Arridy's execution — Colorado Governor Bill Ritter granted him a full and unconditional posthumous pardon, the first of its kind in state history. “Pardoning Joe Arridy cannot undo this tragic event in Colorado history,” Ritter said. “It is in the interests of justice and simple decency, however, to restore his good name.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Was Joe Arridy actually guilty?
No. Overwhelming evidence — including a coerced false confession and a separate confession from the actual killer, Frank Aguilar — points to his innocence.
How was Joe Arridy executed?
By gas chamber, at the Colorado State Penitentiary, on January 6, 1939.
Was anyone else convicted of the murder?
Yes. Frank Aguilar was convicted and executed in August 1937 for the same crime.
Has Arridy's case affected the law since?
Yes, indirectly. His case is frequently cited in discussions of executing people with intellectual disabilities, an issue the U.S. Supreme Court later addressed in the 2002 case Atkins v. Virginia, which ruled such executions unconstitutional.
Sources
Joe Arridy — Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Arridy
Colorado Governor Grants Unconditional Pardon Based on Innocence to Inmate Who Was Executed — Death Penalty Information Center
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/colorado-governor-grants-unconditional-pardon-based-on-innocence-to-inmate-who-was-executed
Joe Arridy's False Conviction — Law Week Colorado
https://www.lawweekcolorado.com/article/joe-arridys-false-conviction/