The Alfred Hitchcock Hour

The episode's writer, John Resko, was a former inmate on Sing Sing prison's death row having been convicted of first degree murder in 1931 and was sentenced to death in the electric chair at the age of 19. He won a reprieve just 15 minutes before his scheduled electrocution and his death sentence eventually was commuted to life in prison by Governor Franklin Roosevelt. He spent 19 years in Sing Sing and Dannemora prisons during which time he studied art and learned how to write. He was released on Dec 22, 1949. Doubleday and Company published a book entitled Reprieve in 1956 that Resko wrote about his life story which was the basis of a movie entitled Convicts Four starring Ben Gazzara that was made in 1962.