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Rainey
Bethea and the end of public executions in the United States
Rainey
Bethea (October 16, 1909 to 1913 unknown? – August
14, 1936) was the last person to be publicly executed in
the United States. A black male, who was 26 years old, he
confessed to the rape and murder of a 70-year-old white
woman named Lischia Edwards, and was publicly hanged in
Owensboro, Kentucky after being convicted of her rape. Mistakes
in executing the hanging and the surrounding media circus
contributed to the end of public executions in the United
States.
Bethea
handcuffed between Daviess County Deputy Sheriffs Albert
Reisz, left, and Lawrence Dishman, right, who traveled to
Louisville the night before the execution to bring him to
Owensboro for his public hanging.
Although
the crime was infamous in the surrounding areas, it came
to nationwide attention due to one fact — the sheriff
of Daviess County was a woman. Florence Thompson had become
sheriff on April 13, 1936 after her husband, Everett, who
was elected sheriff in 1933, unexpectedly died of pneumonia
on April 10, 1936. As sheriff of the county, it was her
duty to hang Bethea.
Among the
hundreds of letters that Sheriff Thompson received after
it came to public attention she would perform the hanging
was one from Arthur L. Hash, a former Louisville police
officer, who offered his services free of charge to perform
the execution. Thompson quickly decided to accept this offer.
He only asked that she not make his name public.
Thompson
also received a letter from the Chief Deputy United States
Marshal for the District of Indiana telling her of a farmer
from Epworth, Illinois, named G. Phil Hanna, who had assisted
with hangings across the country. Bethea's hanging would
be the 70th which Hanna had supervised. He himself never
pulled the trigger that released the trapdoor, and the only
thing he asked for in return was the weapon used in the
crime. Hanna developed his interest in the "art"
of hanging after he witnessed the botched execution of Fred
Beheme at McLeansboro, Illinois, in 1896, which had resulted
in the condemned man suffering greatly. As such, Hanna saw
it as his main task to provide whatever assistance he could
to ensure a quick, painless death. Hanna did not always
succeed in this endeavor — during the hanging of James
Johnson on March 26, 1920, the rope broke and Johnson fell
to the ground and was severely injured. Hanna had to descend
the steps, carry the injured Johnson back to the scaffold,
and proceed with his execution.
On August
6, the Governor of Kentucky Albert Chandler signed Bethea's
execution warrant and set the execution for sunrise on August
14. However, Sheriff Thompson requested the governor to
issue a revised death warrant because the original warrant
specified that the hanging would take place in the courthouse
yard, where the county, at significant expense, had recently
planted new shrubs and flowers. Chandler was out-of-state,
so Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky Keen Johnson signed a
second death warrant, moving the location of the hanging
from the courthouse yard to an empty lot near the county
garage.
Rainey
Bethea's last meal consisted of fried chicken, pork chops,
mashed potatoes, pickled cucumbers, cornbread, lemon pie,
and ice cream, which he ate at 4:00 p.m. on August 13 in
Louisville. At about 1:00 a.m. Daviess County deputy sheriffs
transported Bethea from Louisville to Owensboro. At the
jail, Hanna visited Bethea and instructed him to stand on
the X that would be marked on the trapdoor.
Bethea's
last meal in the Jefferson County Jail in Louisville.
It was
estimated that a crowd of 20,000 people gathered to watch
the execution, with thousands coming from out of town. Hash
arrived drunk at the site, wearing a white suit and a white
Panama hat. At this time, no one but he and Thompson knew
he would be pulling the trigger.
Bethea
left the Daviess County Jail at 5:21 a.m. and walked with
two deputies to the scaffold. Within two minutes, he was
at the base of the scaffold. Removing his shoes, he put
on a new pair of socks. He ascended the steps and stood
on the large X as instructed. He made no final statement
to the waiting crowd. After making his final confession
to Father Lammers, of the Cathedral of the Assumption Church
in Louisville, the black hood was placed over his head,
and three large straps placed around his ankles, thighs
and arms and chest.
THE LAST
PUBLIC EXECUTION IN AMERICA
Hanna
placed the noose around his neck, adjusted it and then signaled
to Hash to pull the trigger. Instead Hash, who was drunk,
did nothing. Hanna shouted at Hash, "Do it!" and
a deputy leaned onto the trigger which sprung the trap door.
Throughout all of this, the crowd was hushed. Bethea fell
eight feet, and his neck was instantly broken. About 14
minutes later, two doctors confirmed Bethea was dead. After
the noose was removed, his body was taken to Andrew &
Wheatley Funeral Home. He had wanted his body sent to his
sister in South Carolina. Instead he was buried in a pauper's
grave at the Elmwood Cemetery in Owensboro.
Monument
at "Potter's Field," where Bethea is buried in
an unmarked grave. Rosehill Elmwood Cemetery Owensboro Daviess
County Kentucky, USA
Many newspapers
having spent considerable sums of money to cover the first
execution of a man by a woman were disappointed and took
liberties with their reporting, describing it as a "Roman
Holiday," falsely reporting that the crowd rushed the
gallows to claim souvenirs, some even falsely reporting
Thompson fainted at the base of the scaffold.
Afterwards
Hanna complained that Hash should not have been allowed
to perform the execution in his state. He said it was the
worst display he experienced in the 70 hangings he had supervised.
The
end of public executions in the United States
The Kentucky General Assembly met in biennial
sessions. Although the media circus surrounding the Bethea
execution embarrassed members of the Kentucky legislature,
it was powerless to amend the law until the next session
in 1938. Meanwhile, two other men were hanged for rape in
Kentucky, John "Pete" Montjoy and Harold Van Venison,
but the trial judges of both of those cases ordered that
the hangings be conducted privately. Montjoy, age 23, was
privately hanged in Covington on December 17, 1937. On January
17, 1938, William R. Attkisson of the Kentucky State Senate's
38th District (Louisville), introduced Senate Bill 69, calling
for the repeal the requirement from Section 1137 that death
sentences for the crime of rape be conducted by hanging
in the county seat where the crime was committed. Representative
Charles W. Anderson, Jr., one of the attorneys who assisted
Bethea in his post conviction relief motions, promoted the
bill in the Kentucky House of Representatives. After both
houses approved the bill on March 12, 1938, Governor Albert
B. Chandler signed it into law, and it became effective
on May 30, 1938. Chandler later expressed regret at having
approved the repeal, claiming, "Our streets are no
longer safe." The last person to be legally hanged
in Kentucky was Harold Van Venison, a thirty-three-year-old
black singer, who was privately hanged in Covington on June
3, 1938. Van Venison was hanged after the rape law had actually
been repealed. Governor Chandler signed no death warrant
in this case, and, for this reason, the hanging was conducted
in violation of Section 297 of the Kentucky Code of Criminal
Practice. Before the hanging, a legal question arose as
to whether Van Venison should hang or be electrocuted, since
the rape law requiring hanging had been repealed effective
May 30, 1938. Attorney General of Kentucky Hubert Meredith
issued a formal legal opinion stating that, since the offense
as well as the conviction had occurred prior to the repeal
date, Van Venison should hang, since Section 1137-10 of
the Kentucky Statutes stated that the penalty to be imposed
would be the penalty available and in effect at the time
the offense was committed.
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