For the past 2 decades, Chuck Shepherd has been publishing a syndicated column (in newspapers all around you). He reports on News Of The Weird. Here's an example from the 80s:

"In 1983, convicted South Carolina murderer Michael Godwin, then 22, succeeded in getting an appeals court to reduce his death-by-electric-chair sentence to one of life in prison at the Central Correctional Institution in Columbia, S.C. Six years later, in March 1989, while sitting naked on a metal toilet and attempting to fix earphones that were connected to a television set, Godwin bit into a wire and was electrocuted."
http://www.newsoftheweird.com/archive/

Normally, he includes the source data. I've often checked his citations, and they are always correct. If Chuck Shepherd prints it, it's true.

You can get his weekly newsletter: http://www.newsoftheweird.com