LAST PUBLIC HANGING
IN AMERICA
G'day folks,
A crowd variously estimated at 10,000 to 20,000 gathered at Owensboro, Kentucky in 1936 to watch the last ever public hanging in the United States.
The fact that the prisoner was a young black man and that the sheriff overseeing the execution was a white woman intensified the interest of both the public and the Press. Reporters from across the country arrived to cover the event.
Rainey Bethea, aged 22, had been found guilty of raping a wealthy white
widow, 70-year-old Lischia Edwards. A neighbour failed to get a reply
when he knocked on her door on a Sunday morning in late June, concerned
about her not leaving for church. Mrs. Edwards was then found dead on
her bed, the coroner later declaring that she had been strangled and
raped the previous night.
Bethea, who had a criminal record for burglary, had worked as a servant
for several Owensboro families and had been employed at the apartment
building where Mrs. Edwards lived. He became the prime suspect when a
cheap ring belonging to him was found in the room.
After being arrested Bethea confessed to the crimes and admitted stealing jewellery belonging to Mrs. Edwards.
Under Kentucky state law at the time, conviction for robbery and murder
would result in execution at the state penitentiary, but the
prosecution, wanting the execution to take place at Owensboro, proceeded
only with a charge of rape. This carried the possibility of public
hanging, satisfying the lust of some townspeople for vengeance.
At his trial in a packed courthouse Bethea pleaded guilty. The
prosecution still presented the facts to the jury as they would need to
decide the sentence. There was no defence.
The judge instructed the jury that their only job was to decide whether
Bethea should get between 10 to 20 years in prison or the death
sentence. It took them less than five minutes to decide that he should
be hanged.
This was not good news for Florence Thompson. She had taken over the job
of sheriff from her husband who had died three months earlier. Sheriff
Thompson, a mother of four, was expected to become the first woman
executioner in United States history because in law it was her duty to
spring the trap. But she was repelled by the idea and said so publicly.
She then received death threats and it was agreed she could ask someone
to do the job for her. And so retired police officer Arthur Hash was
hired by Sheriff Thompson to pull the lever.
Organising the whole squalid affair was an Illinois farmer named G. Phil
Hanna who had overseen about 70 hangings. He took interest in the
grisly pursuit when he saw a botched execution that caused great
suffering for the victim. After studying how to hang someone as humanely
as possible he began offering his services.
At Owensboro Hanna adjusted the noose around Bethea’s neck and gave the
signal to Hash to pull the lever. But Hash was reportedly drunk and
failed to notice. Exasperated, Hanna yelled, “Do it now!” And so one of
America's most shameful executions came to an end.
Many newspapers denounced “the carnival of sadism” saying that the
crowds enjoyed it too much. But they also carried a large number of
indignant letters, the writers telling of their shame that such a thing
could happen in Kentucky. Two years later the state abolished public
executions.
Clancy's comment: Who would want to attend such an event?
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