Toni Jo Henry

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".

In 2016, another biography about Henry, Stone Justice by Lyn Morgan and Debi King McMartin, was published.

Henry's story is the focus of the 2013 film entitled The Pardon, which was shot on location in Shreveport. It stars actress Jaime King as Toni Jo Henry. John Hawkes plays Arkie Burks, with TJ Thyne, Jason Lewis, Leigh Whannell, and Tim Guinee. Tom Anton is the producer and director.

The radio show Gangbusters serialized Toni Jo's story in an episode that aired in February 1943.

The third trial was held in January 1942. Toni Jo was again convicted and sentenced to death. She appealed, but this time her appeal was denied. An appeal to the Governor, Sam H. Jones, for clemency also failed.

During the time Henry was being tried, Louisiana changed its method of execution from hanging to death by electrocution, the sentence being carried out on November 28, 1942, in the basement of Calcasieu Parish courthouse. The portable electric chair was later used at Burks' execution in March 1943. The district attorney was Griffin T. Hawkins of Lake Charles. Father Richard was present at her execution and would officiate her burial, days later. Four days prior to her execution, Claude Henry escaped from prison to see his wife one last time and was recaptured in Beaumont, Texas. Soon afterwards, he was paroled due to ill health. He was killed by a café owner on July 15, 1945, in Dallas, while out on parole.

The second trial took place in February 1941. Unlike in the first trial, Burks took the stand and testified against Toni Jo. After an hour of deliberations, she was again convicted and sentenced to death. She again appealed and was granted a new trial.

Upon returning from California, Claude Henry was arrested for the murder of a former San Antonio police officer, Arthur Sinclair, prior to their marriage. He was found guilty in January 1940 and sentenced to fifty years in the Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville.

Her first trial was held from March 27–29, 1940 at Calcasieu Courthouse. Because of Henry's good looks, the possibility of the death penalty and the severity of the charges, the trial gained much press coverage. She claimed that Burks was the one who fired the fatal shot, but after deliberating for six hours, the jury convicted her and sentenced her to death by hanging. Burks was later convicted and sentenced to death. Toni Jo appealed and was granted a new trial on the grounds that publicity surrounding the trial prejudiced the outcome.

In 1939, she met Claude Henry, one of her customers, in Austin, Texas. A down-on-his-luck prize fighter, Cowboy, as he was known, fell in love with the young woman. Married on November 25, 1939, the couple honeymooned in southern California.

Toni Jo Henry (née Annie Beatrice McQuiston; January 3, 1916 – November 28, 1942) was the only woman ever to be executed in Louisiana's electric chair. 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. Together with Harold Burks, she took a ride with Joseph P. Calloway, whom they then robbed and murdered. Toni Jo Henry was convicted and sentenced to death. After three trials, she was executed by electrocution on November 28, 1942. Her case generated several popular books and films including A Savage Wisdom and Stone Justice.

Henry was born Annie Beatrice McQuiston in Shreveport, Louisiana on January 3, 1916, the third of five children. She lived with her grandmother for a while, while her mother was ill. Her mother died of tuberculosis when Henry was six years of age. After her mother died she lived with her father and stepmother, although always wanted to return to living with her grandmother.