LITTLE ROCK—Death masks, the macabre face casts made of those executed in Arkansas through the early 1960s, once lined the walls of a state police office and the state’s Crime Laboratory.

Now, only two remain in the state’s possession.

“We just don’t have any records that would tell us what became of these masks,” said Bill Sadler, a spokesman for the Arkansas State Police.

The two still held by the state are of Ben Adams, who was executed in 1942 for the murder of a liquor store owner in Augusta, and of James Wayburn Hall, executed in 1946 after being convicted in Pulaski County of killing his wife.

Beginning next April, two of the masks will be on display again, at the Old State House Museum in an exhibit about the history of the criminal justice system in Arkansas.

The masks appear to be wax, but were made of plaster of Paris and painted yellow before being mounted on wooden plaques. Typewritten captions with details of the crime and the execution also are mounted on the wood.