Toni Jo Henry (née Annie Beatrice McQuiston;[1] January 3, 1916 – November 28, 1942) was the only woman ever to be executed in Louisiana's electric chair.
[2] Married to Claude 'Cowboy' Henry, she decided to break her husband out of jail where he was serving a fifty-year sentence in the Texas State Penitentiary for murder.
After her father gave her a beating for losing her job, she left home and became a street hustler and prostitute, changing her name to Toni Jo Hood.
[3] Upon returning from California, Claude Henry was arrested for the murder of a former San Antonio police officer, Arthur Sinclair, prior to their marriage.
[3] The pair devised a plan to rob a bank, in hopes of securing money to aid in breaking Claude Henry out of jail.
[5] Joseph P. Calloway was delivering a Ford Coupe to a friend when he happened upon Toni Jo and Arkie Burks who were hitchhiking.
[5] When they reached Camden, Arkansas, Arkie became concerned about how far Henry would go to break her husband out of prison and left her,[5] taking the car.
[3] Henry returned to Shreveport by bus,[3] where she sought refuge with her aunt, Emma, and told her she had murdered a man near Lake Charles, Louisiana.
[10] While Henry was incarcerated at Lake Charles Prison, she was befriended by Father Wayne Richard, head of a local Catholic parish.
[4] During the time Henry was being tried, Louisiana changed its method of execution from hanging to death by electrocution,[4] the sentence being carried out on November 28, 1942, in the basement of Calcasieu Parish courthouse.
Four days prior to her execution, Claude Henry escaped from prison to see his wife one last time and was recaptured in Beaumont, Texas.
John Hawkes plays Arkie Burks, with TJ Thyne, Jason Lewis, Leigh Whannell, and Tim Guinee.
[13] On September 10, 2016, Toni Jo's story was profiled in the third episode for the tenth season of Deadly Women, titled "Bad to the Bone".