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This article recounts the 1938 execution of Tony Chebatoris – the last person to face the death penalty in Michigan – along with Michigan’s historic status as the first state to abolish capital punishment in 1846, the details of the Chemical State Savings Bank robbery in Midland, and the current state of the federal death penalty in the United States as of 2025. The content is for educational and historical-legal documentation purposes only, based on sources from the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and media reports. It does not aim to glorify violence or advocate for crime.
Tony Chebatoris: The Last Man Executed in Michigan – The 1938 Case That Changed History
The state of Michigan holds a unique place in the history of American capital punishment. On May 4, 1846, Michigan became the first state in the union to officially abolish the death penalty. Nearly a century later, in 1938, a rare event occurred: a man was executed on Michigan soil. It was not a state sentence, but a federal one. Tony Chebatoris, a convicted armed robber, became the last person to face execution in Michigan – and one of only 36 people executed by the U.S. federal government in the 20th century. Nearly 90 years later, only one Michigan man remains on federal death row. This article tells the full story: from the fateful bank robbery, to the trial, the execution, and the current state of the federal death penalty under Presidents Trump, Biden, and now Trump again.
1. Criminal Past: From Armed Robbery to Federal Prison
Tony Chebatoris was not a first-time offender. On July 20, 1920, he was first convicted for the armed robbery of a Packard cashier. Sentenced to 20 years, he was let out on parole after only six and a half years. Months after being released, Chebatoris was arrested in Louisville, Kentucky, for armed robbery and stealing an automobile – a violation of the Dyer Act (National Motor Vehicle Theft Act), enacted in 1919. He was re-imprisoned at Jackson State Prison to serve his full sentence for the armed robbery. While there, Chebatoris befriended fellow inmate Jack Gracey. The two conspired to escape and were consequently transferred to Marquette Branch Prison in the Upper Peninsula.
Chebatoris was released from prison in December 1935. After more legal trouble in Pennsylvania, he moved back to Detroit in 1937. It was then that he and Jack Gracey became reacquainted and began formulating plans for a bank robbery.
2. The Chemical State Savings Bank Robbery
On September 29, 1937, Chebatoris and Gracey attempted to rob the Chemical State Savings Bank in Downtown Midland, Michigan. Gracey entered the bank at 11:30 a.m. with a sawed-off shotgun while Chebatoris guarded the door with a revolver.
Gracey approached 65-year-old bank president Clarence Macomber and shoved the shotgun into his ribs. When the two struggled over the shotgun, Chebatoris shot Macomber in the shoulder. Paul Bywater, the bank’s cashier, was shot in the back above the hip by Chebatoris. Both survived their injuries.
The men aborted their robbery plan and fled. Chebatoris drove the getaway car.
Dr. Frank Hardy, a dentist whose practice was adjacent to the bank building, heard the gunshots. He used a hunting rifle to fire at the getaway car from his office window, striking Chebatoris’s arm and Gracey’s leg, causing Chebatoris to lose control and crash into a parked car. Both men exited the car, looking for the source of the gunfire. Henry Porter, a truck driver from Bay City whose uniform could have been confused for a police uniform, was a bystander in the area. Chebatoris shot Porter. Hardy fired again, hitting Gracey’s elbow. When Gracey tried to commandeer a truck, Hardy shot him in the head from a distance of over 100 yards. Chebatoris was apprehended by a road repairman in Midland County.
3. Why Federal Jurisdiction? The National Bank Robbery Act
FBI agents arrived at the scene shortly after the shootout. From the beginning, it was clear that Chebatoris would be charged with a federal, not a state, offense. He had violated the National Bank Robbery Act, passed by Congress in 1934 in response to the surge of bank robberies during the Great Depression. The Act gave the federal government jurisdiction over incidents occurring in banks that were members of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) or the Federal Reserve System. Chemical State Savings Bank belonged to both. Crucially, the National Bank Robbery Act also provided for the death penalty in the event an innocent person was killed. And Henry Porter, the innocent truck driver, was dead.
4. The Trial and Historic Sentence
A three-day trial was held in Bay City, Michigan. The evidence against Chebatoris was overwhelming. The jury returned a guilty verdict and imposed the death penalty. Chebatoris became the first person in the nation to be sentenced to death under the National Bank Robbery Act. He was also the first person to face death for a crime committed in Michigan in nearly 100 years, and the first-ever to be sentenced to death by a Michigan jury. (The last previous execution in Michigan had taken place in Detroit on September 24, 1830 – seven years before Michigan became a state.)
The judge gave the official sentence and set the execution date for July 8, 1938.
Two weeks before the scheduled hanging, Michigan Governor Frank Murphy pleaded with President Franklin Roosevelt to move the execution to another state. Roosevelt determined the law to be fairly clear and that little could be done to prevent the hanging in Michigan – even though the warden of Chicago’s Cook County Jail had offered to lend one of their electric chairs.
5. The Execution of July 8, 1938
Chebatoris refused a customary last meal and turned away the prison chaplain. On the morning of July 8, 1938, he was officially pronounced dead at 5:21 a.m. Chebatoris was one of only 36 people to be executed by the U.S. federal government during the 20th century.
Michigan, the state that had abolished the death penalty in 1846, could not prevent a federal execution from taking place on its soil. And since that day, no one has been executed in Michigan.
6. Today: One Michigan Man on Federal Death Row
As of 2025, only one man from Michigan remains on federal death row. That man is Marvin Charles Gabrion. In 2002, Gabrion was convicted of murdering Rachel Timmerman on federal property in Michigan in 1997. Timmerman’s body was found on July 5, 1997; her 11-month-old daughter has never been found. Gabrion is suspected of, but has not been charged with, killing the child and three other people. During the Timmerman murder trial, at least 58 witnesses testified against Gabrion. He was sentenced to death and has continued to appeal that sentence for years. An execution date has not been set.
Update: President Joe Biden commuted the sentence of this Michigan death row inmate to life imprisonment without parole.
7. The Federal Death Penalty Under Different Presidents
There have been 50 federal executions carried out since 1927. There were no executions in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, or the 2010s. The Trump administration carried out 13 federal executions – an unprecedented run that concluded just five days before President Joe Biden was inaugurated. Dustin Higgs was the last person executed by the federal government; he was convicted of ordering the killings of three women in a Maryland wildlife refuge in 1996, and he denied the crime until the end.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, there are three prisoners currently on federal death row. The Federal Bureau of Prisons reports that no federal executions are currently scheduled.
President Biden commuted the sentences of 37 out of 40 people facing federal execution, giving them life in prison without parole. On the first day of President Donald Trump’s second term (January 20, 2025), one of his first executive orders called for restoring the federal death penalty, describing it as “an essential tool.”
Thus, the story of Tony Chebatoris in 1938 is not only a historic marker for Michigan but also part of the larger, ongoing debate over the federal death penalty in the United States – a debate that continues to this day.
Primary sources:
U.S. Department of Justice – Tony Chebatoris case files.
Federal Bureau of Prisons – Federal death row list.
Death Penalty Information Center.
Associated Press reports on the Dustin Higgs execution and President Biden’s commutations.
Michigan state history – May 4, 1846 abolition date.
Executive orders of President Donald Trump, second term (2025).