Texas isn't a shy state when handing out the ultimate punishment. Year after year, Texas typically leads other states in inmates who departed this world with help from the needle.

The needle (or rather the drugs within) has been the only execution method used by Texas since 1982 when Charles Brooks Jr. became the first man in the U.S. to ever die that way.

Before that, there was a lengthy hiatus in executions, because the Supreme Court had declared it unconstitutional. Before the ban, Texas used the electric chair, also known macabrely as "Old Sparky."

So who was the last person to "ride the lightning"?

The last person executed in Texas using the electric chair was Joseph Johnson, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. He died on July 30, 1964.

I was unable to find a mugshot or other photo of Joseph Johnson, but I did find some interesting facts about him and his crime, thanks to digitized notecards in the collection of the University of Albany, of all places.

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The notecards, which serve as an excerpt from June  1963's Front Page Detective, describe the details of the crime, which I am further paraphrasing here:

At 27 years old and after already serving two stints in prison for robbery, Johnson entered a neighborhood grocery store to buy a pack of cigarettes.

When the woman, listed as Mrs. Chui, opened the cash register, Johnson reached for the cash. She then grabbed his wrist and screamed, so Johnson shot her.

Mr. Chui, the woman's husband, and co-owner of the store, chased Johnson, firing his own gun. Johnson returned fire, striking and killing Mr. Chui.

Read More: Death Row: Meet Carl Buntion, Oldest Man Ever Executed In Texas

Luckily, Mrs. Chui survived to identify Johnson, along with two children who also happened to be in the store at the time of the shootings.

The card also mentions that Mr. Chui's father was also killed in a store robbery 30 years prior, and was also executed- by hanging in Mississippi.

Another notecard that is an excerpt from the Houston Post, 4/21/1962 also adds that Johnson submitted a tearful confession, stating he had not intended to kill anyone and had spent the stolen money on presents for his family.

It also states that he was suspected of several other robberies.

And so Johnson became the last of 361 men to die in the Texas electric chair, and the last to be executed for 18 years.

Will there be a last that gets the needle? Or the last to ever be executed by the state?

Perhaps within my lifetime, but I'm not betting on it.