At seventeen, Floyd Burton Loveless became the youngest person ever
executed by the state of Nevada. What led him to that end was just as
tragic. Following a series of family catastrophes, Loveless was a petty
thief by age twelve and a confessed rapist at fifteen. Sentenced to
seven years at an Indiana state boys reformatory, he escaped after a
month in custody. The ruthless teen robbed his way to Carlin, Nevada,
where he shot and killed a constable who spotted the stolen car he was
driving and confronted him. After a protracted legal battle, Loveless
died in the gas chamber on September 29, 1944. Author Janice Oberding
recounts the sordid details that sparked national controversy over the
constitutionality of juvenile capital punishment.