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This series contains documents, several selections of diary entries, photographs and curriculum vita of Bates. The documents pertaining to Roy C. Bates (Kurt Bauchwitz) date from 1890 to 1974 with later documents pertaining to Barbara Bates (third wife), which date through 1995. Included in the collection are many early documents such as birth certificates, early school documents, marriage certificates from Bates/Bauchwitz' first two marriages in Germany, as well as university and military service documents. Also in the collection are a number of documents which record Bates/Bauchwitz' legal career as well as his subsequent dismissal from his post by the Hitler regime in 1938. His period of flight from Nazi Germany is also well-documented, as well as his early years in the U.S., including his naturalization as a U.S. citizen in 1946. Also included in this section are documents pertaining to his university studies in the U.S. at Columbia, St. John's and New York Universities. Completing the biographical section of this series are a number of curriculum vita, several biographical statements prepared for planned editions of Bates' poetry, as well as a number of photographs.

Watt Espy kept a series of index cards, grouped mainly by state, that records information about executions on American soil (colonies, states, territories) since the 1600s. Some cards contain lots of information, including name, place of execution, method, and details of the crime. Other cards have very little information aside from the fact that someone was executed. Sometimes there is not even a name—just "two slaves" or "pirate". There are additional categories for federal, military, and indigenous executions. There are two different card sizes; for the 3x5 inch cards, each state, territory, or other main division is identified with a manila tab. Subdivisions are marked with blue, unlined cards and are intended to mirror the arrangement of materials in Series #2 as closely as possible.