1969 Press Photo Parish Prison death row inmate Larry Joe Purkey talks on phone

Larry Joe "Rat" Purkey, 21, talks from near his death row cell at Parish Prison Friday to his mother in Indianapolis, Indiana. It was the first time he had ever spoken to her. She gave him up in infancy. Purkey faces death in the electric chair for the slaying of Taylor West McLaurin, Jr. of Charleston, West Virginia, on Mardi Gras in 1968.

Photo is dated 1969.

Photo measures 8.25 x 9.75 inches.