Rainey Bethea
Encyclopedia
Rainey Bethea was the last person to be publicly executed in the United States
. Bethea, who was a black man, confessed to the rape
and murder
of a 70-year-old white woman named Lischia Edwards, and after being convicted of her rape, he was publicly hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky
. Mistakes in executing the hanging and the surrounding media circus
contributed to the end of public executions in the United States.
, Bethea was orphaned after the death of his mother in 1919 and his father in 1926. Little is known of his time before he arrived in Owensboro in 1933. He worked for the Rutherford family and lived in their basement for about a year. He then moved to a cabin behind the house of Emmett Wells. He worked as a laborer and rented a room from Mrs. Charles Brown. He also attended a Baptist
church.
His first brush with the law was in 1935, when he was charged with breach of the peace
, for which he was fined $20, then in April of the same year, he was caught stealing two purses from the Vogue Beauty Shop. Since the value of the purses exceeded $25, he was convicted of a felony, grand larceny
, and sentenced to a year in the Kentucky State Penitentiary
at Eddyville
. He arrived there on June 1, 1935. His physical showed him to be 5 feet, 4 3/8 inches (1.64 m) tall and to weigh 128 pounds (58 kg). He was parole
d on December 1, 1935.
On returning to Owensboro, he continued to work as a laborer and was paid about $7.00 per week. Less than a month later, he was arrested again, this time for house breaking. On January 6, 1936, this charge was amended to drunk and disorderly
. He was unable to pay the $100 fine and remained incarcerated in the Daviess County, Kentucky
Jail until April 18, 1936.
After removing a screen from her window, he entered the room, waking her. Bethea then choked Edwards and violently raped her. After she was unconscious, he searched for valuables and stole several of her rings. In the process, he removed his own black celluloid
prison ring, but failed to retrieve it. He left the bedroom and hid the stolen jewels in a barn not far from the house.
The crime was discovered late that morning after the Smith family, who lived downstairs, noticed they had not heard Edwards stirring in her room. They feared she might have been ill and knocked on the door of her room, attempting to rouse her. They found the door locked with a skeleton key still inside the lock from the inside, which prevented another key from being placed in the lock from the outside. They contacted a neighbor, Robert Richardson, hoping he could help, and he managed to knock the key free, but another skeleton key would not unlock the door. Smith then obtained a ladder and climbed into the room through the transom
over the door, discovering Edwards was dead.
The Smiths alerted Dr. George Barr while he was attending a service at the local Methodist Church. Dr. Barr realized there was little he could do and summoned the local coroner
, Delbert Glenn, who attended the same church. The Smiths also called the Owensboro police. Officers found the room was otherwise tidy, but there were muddy footprints everywhere. Coroner Glenn also found a celluloid prison ring, which Bethea, in his drunken state, had inadvertently left behind in the room.
By late Sunday afternoon, the police already suspected Rainey Bethea after several residents of Owensboro stated that they had previously seen Bethea wearing the ring. Since Bethea had a criminal record, the police were able to use what was then a new identification technique - fingerprint
s - to establish that Bethea had recently touched items inside the bedroom. Throughout the next four days, the police searched for the murderer.
On the Wednesday following the discovery of the murder, Burt "Red" Figgins was working on the bank of the Ohio River
, when he observed Bethea lying under some bushes. Figgins asked Bethea what he was doing, and Bethea responded he was "cooling off." Figgins then reported this sighting to his supervisor, Will Faith, and asked him to call the police. By the time Faith had returned to the spot on the river bank, Bethea had moved to the nearby Koll's Grocery. Faith followed him and then found a policeman in the drugstore, but when they searched for Bethea, he again eluded capture.
Later that afternoon, Bethea was again spotted. This time, he was cornered on the river bank after he tried to board a barge
. When police officers questioned him, he denied that he was Bethea, claiming his name was James Smith. The police played along with the fabricated name, fearing a mob would develop if residents were to learn that the murderer had been captured. After his arrest, Bethea was identified by a scar on the left side of his head.
Jail in Louisville
, fearing a lynch mob. While being transferred, Bethea made his first confession, admitting that he had strangled and raped Edwards. Bethea also lamented the fact that he had made a mistake by leaving his ring at the crime scene.
Once incarcerated at the Jefferson County Jail in Louisville, Bethea made a second confession, this time before Robert M. Morton, a notary public
, and George H. Koper, a reporter for The Courier-Journal
. Officials requested the presence of the notary and the reporter anticipating that Bethea, or someone else, might accuse them of coercing his confession.
On June 12, 1936, Bethea made a third confession and told the captain of the guards where he had hidden the jewelry. Owensboro police searched a barn in Owensboro and found the jewelry, where Bethea said he had left it.
Under Kentucky law, the grand jury
could not convene until June 22, and the prosecutor decided to charge Bethea solely with rape. The reason was, under the statutes then in force, if a punishment of death was given for murder and robbery, it was to be carried out by electrocution
at the state penitentiary in Eddyville; however, rape could be punished by public hanging in the county seat where the crime occurred. To avoid a potential legal dilemma as to whether Bethea would be hanged or electrocuted, the prosecutor elected to charge Bethea only with the crime of rape. Bethea was never charged with the remaining crimes of theft, robbery, burglary, or murder. After one hour and forty minutes, the grand jury returned an indictment, charging Bethea with rape.
On June 25, 1936, officers returned Bethea to Owensboro for the trial. Bethea was unhelpful to his state-appointed attorneys, William L. Wilson, William W. "Bill" Kirtley, Carroll Byron, and C. W. Wells, Jr. He said that a Clyde Maddox would provide an alibi, but Maddox claimed he did not even know Bethea. In the end, they subpoenaed four witnesses: Maddox, Ladd Moorman, Willie Johnson (whom Bethea had implicated as an accomplice in his second confession) and Allen McDaniel. Only the first three were served, because the sheriff's office could not find a person named Allen McDaniel.
On the night before the trial, Bethea announced to his lawyers that he wanted to plead guilty, and he did so the next day at the start of the trial. The prosecutor, who was asking for the death penalty, still presented the state's case to the jury, since the jury would decide the sentence. The first twelve of 111 people called for jury duty were selected.
During his opening statement, the Commonwealth's Attorney
Herman Birkhead said, "This is one of the most dastardly, beastly, cowardly crimes ever committed in Daviess County. Justice demands and the Commonwealth will ask and expect a verdict of the death penalty by hanging."
After questioning 21 witnesses, the prosecution closed its case. The defense did not call any witnesses or cross-examine the witnesses who testified for the prosecution. After a closing statement by the prosecutor, the judge instructed the jury that since Bethea had pled guilty, their only task was to "…fix his punishment, at confinement in the penitentiary for not less than ten years nor more than twenty years, or at death." After only four and a half minutes of deliberation, the jury returned with a sentence, death by hanging. Bethea was then quickly removed from the courthouse and returned to the Jefferson County Jail.
Back in Louisville, Bethea acquired five new black lawyers - Charles Ewbank Tucker, Stephen A. Burnley, Charles W. Anderson, Jr., Harry E. Bonaparte, and R. Everett Ray. They worked without pay to challenge the sentence, something they saw as their ethical duty for the indigent defendant. On July 10, 1936, they filed a motion for a new trial. The judge summarily denied this on the grounds that under Section 273 of the Kentucky Code of Practice in Criminal Cases, a motion for a new trial had to have been received before the end of the court's term, which had ended on July 4, 1936.
They then attempted to appeal to the Kentucky Court of Appeals
, which was also not in session. On July 29, 1936, Justice Gus Thomas returned to Frankfort
where he heard the oral motion. Justice Thomas refused to permit the appeal to be filed on the grounds that the trial court record was incomplete, which only included the judge's ruling. Although it may seem that Bethea's lawyers were incompetent, they knew the appeal would be denied, and this was only a formality in order to exhaust state court remedies before they filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in a federal court.
Once Justice Thomas denied the motion to file a belated appeal, Bethea's attorneys filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus
in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky at Louisville. A hearing was held on August 5, 1936 at the Federal Building in Louisville before United States District Judge Elwood Hamilton. During the hearing, Bethea claimed that he had not wanted to plead guilty but had been forced to by his lawyers, and that he had wanted to subpoena three witnesses to testify on his behalf, but the lawyers had also not done this. Bethea also claimed that his five confessions had been made under duress
and that when he signed one of them, he did not know what he was signing. The Commonwealth brought several witnesses to refute these claims. Judge Hamilton denied the habeas corpus petition and ruled that the hanging could proceed.
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 Behme at McLeansboro
, Illinois
, in 1896, which had resulted in the condemned man suffering. 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, 1936, 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 chop
s, mashed potato
es, pickled cucumber
s, 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.
It was estimated that a crowd of 20,000 people gathered to watch the execution, with thousands coming from out of town. Hash arrived at the site intoxicated, 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 Bethea made his final confession to Father Lammers, of the Cathedral of the Assumption in Louisville, the black hood was placed over his head, and three large straps placed around his ankles, thighs, arms and chest.
Hanna placed the noose around Bethea's 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 sprang 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.
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 drunken condition. Hanna further said it was the worst display he experienced in the 70 hangings he had supervised.
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 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 33-year-old black singer who was privately hanged in Covington on June 3, 1938.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Bethea, who was a black man, confessed to the rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
and murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
of a 70-year-old white woman named Lischia Edwards, and after being convicted of her rape, he was publicly hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky
Owensboro, Kentucky
Owensboro is the fourth largest city by population in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It is the county seat of Daviess County. It is located on U.S. Route 60 about southeast of Evansville, Indiana, and is the principal city of the Owensboro, Kentucky, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city's...
. Mistakes in executing the hanging and the surrounding media circus
Media circus
Media circus is a colloquial metaphor, or idiom, describing a news event where the media coverage is perceived to be out of proportion to the event being covered, such as the number of reporters at the scene, the amount of news media published or broadcast, and the level of media hype...
contributed to the end of public executions in the United States.
Early life
Born in Roanoke, VirginiaRoanoke, Virginia
Roanoke is an independent city in the Mid-Atlantic U.S. state of Virginia and is the tenth-largest city in the Commonwealth. It is located in the Roanoke Valley of the Roanoke Region of Virginia. The population within the city limits was 97,032 as of 2010...
, Bethea was orphaned after the death of his mother in 1919 and his father in 1926. Little is known of his time before he arrived in Owensboro in 1933. He worked for the Rutherford family and lived in their basement for about a year. He then moved to a cabin behind the house of Emmett Wells. He worked as a laborer and rented a room from Mrs. Charles Brown. He also attended a Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
church.
His first brush with the law was in 1935, when he was charged with breach of the peace
Breach of the peace
Breach of the peace is a legal term used in constitutional law in English-speaking countries, and in a wider public order sense in Britain.-Constitutional law:...
, for which he was fined $20, then in April of the same year, he was caught stealing two purses from the Vogue Beauty Shop. Since the value of the purses exceeded $25, he was convicted of a felony, grand larceny
Larceny
Larceny is a crime involving the wrongful acquisition of the personal property of another person. It was an offence under the common law of England and became an offence in jurisdictions which incorporated the common law of England into their own law. It has been abolished in England and Wales,...
, and sentenced to a year in the Kentucky State Penitentiary
Eddyville, Kentucky
Eddyville is a city in Lyon County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 2,350 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Lyon County . The Kentucky State Penitentiary is located in Eddyville.-History:...
at Eddyville
Eddyville, Kentucky
Eddyville is a city in Lyon County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 2,350 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Lyon County . The Kentucky State Penitentiary is located in Eddyville.-History:...
. He arrived there on June 1, 1935. His physical showed him to be 5 feet, 4 3/8 inches (1.64 m) tall and to weigh 128 pounds (58 kg). He was parole
Parole
Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French parole . Following its use in late-resurrected Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their...
d on December 1, 1935.
On returning to Owensboro, he continued to work as a laborer and was paid about $7.00 per week. Less than a month later, he was arrested again, this time for house breaking. On January 6, 1936, this charge was amended to drunk and disorderly
Public intoxication
Public intoxication, also known as "drunk and disorderly", is a summary offense in many countries rated to public cases or displays of drunkenness...
. He was unable to pay the $100 fine and remained incarcerated in the Daviess County, Kentucky
Daviess County, Kentucky
As of the census of 2000, there were 91,545 people, 36,033 households, and 24,826 families residing in the county. The population density was . There were 38,432 housing units at an average density of...
Jail until April 18, 1936.
The crime and discovery
During the early morning of June 7, 1936, Bethea gained access to the home of Lischia Edwards by climbing onto the roof of an outbuilding next door. From there, he jumped onto the roof of the servant’s quarters of Emmett Wells' house, and then walked down a wooden walkway. He climbed over the kitchen roof to Edwards' bedroom window.After removing a screen from her window, he entered the room, waking her. Bethea then choked Edwards and violently raped her. After she was unconscious, he searched for valuables and stole several of her rings. In the process, he removed his own black celluloid
Celluloid
Celluloid is the name of a class of compounds created from nitrocellulose and camphor, plus dyes and other agents. Generally regarded to be the first thermoplastic, it was first created as Parkesine in 1862 and as Xylonite in 1869, before being registered as Celluloid in 1870. Celluloid is...
prison ring, but failed to retrieve it. He left the bedroom and hid the stolen jewels in a barn not far from the house.
The crime was discovered late that morning after the Smith family, who lived downstairs, noticed they had not heard Edwards stirring in her room. They feared she might have been ill and knocked on the door of her room, attempting to rouse her. They found the door locked with a skeleton key still inside the lock from the inside, which prevented another key from being placed in the lock from the outside. They contacted a neighbor, Robert Richardson, hoping he could help, and he managed to knock the key free, but another skeleton key would not unlock the door. Smith then obtained a ladder and climbed into the room through the transom
Transom (architectural)
In architecture, a transom is the term given to a transverse beam or bar in a frame, or to the crosspiece separating a door or the like from a window or fanlight above it. Transom is also the customary U.S. word used for a transom light, the window over this crosspiece...
over the door, discovering Edwards was dead.
The Smiths alerted Dr. George Barr while he was attending a service at the local Methodist Church. Dr. Barr realized there was little he could do and summoned the local coroner
Coroner
A coroner is a government official who* Investigates human deaths* Determines cause of death* Issues death certificates* Maintains death records* Responds to deaths in mass disasters* Identifies unknown dead* Other functions depending on local laws...
, Delbert Glenn, who attended the same church. The Smiths also called the Owensboro police. Officers found the room was otherwise tidy, but there were muddy footprints everywhere. Coroner Glenn also found a celluloid prison ring, which Bethea, in his drunken state, had inadvertently left behind in the room.
By late Sunday afternoon, the police already suspected Rainey Bethea after several residents of Owensboro stated that they had previously seen Bethea wearing the ring. Since Bethea had a criminal record, the police were able to use what was then a new identification technique - fingerprint
Fingerprint
A fingerprint in its narrow sense is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. In a wider use of the term, fingerprints are the traces of an impression from the friction ridges of any part of a human hand. A print from the foot can also leave an impression of friction ridges...
s - to establish that Bethea had recently touched items inside the bedroom. Throughout the next four days, the police searched for the murderer.
On the Wednesday following the discovery of the murder, Burt "Red" Figgins was working on the bank of the Ohio River
Ohio River
The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...
, when he observed Bethea lying under some bushes. Figgins asked Bethea what he was doing, and Bethea responded he was "cooling off." Figgins then reported this sighting to his supervisor, Will Faith, and asked him to call the police. By the time Faith had returned to the spot on the river bank, Bethea had moved to the nearby Koll's Grocery. Faith followed him and then found a policeman in the drugstore, but when they searched for Bethea, he again eluded capture.
Later that afternoon, Bethea was again spotted. This time, he was cornered on the river bank after he tried to board a barge
Barge
A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods. Some barges are not self-propelled and need to be towed by tugboats or pushed by towboats...
. When police officers questioned him, he denied that he was Bethea, claiming his name was James Smith. The police played along with the fabricated name, fearing a mob would develop if residents were to learn that the murderer had been captured. After his arrest, Bethea was identified by a scar on the left side of his head.
Trial, appeal, and petition for Habeas Corpus
The judge of the Daviess Circuit Court ordered the sheriff to transport Bethea to the Jefferson CountyJefferson County, Kentucky
As of the census of 2000, there were 693,604 people, 287,012 households, and 183,113 families residing in the county. The population density was . There were 305,835 housing units at an average density of...
Jail in Louisville
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
, fearing a lynch mob. While being transferred, Bethea made his first confession, admitting that he had strangled and raped Edwards. Bethea also lamented the fact that he had made a mistake by leaving his ring at the crime scene.
Once incarcerated at the Jefferson County Jail in Louisville, Bethea made a second confession, this time before Robert M. Morton, a notary public
Notary public
A notary public in the common law world is a public officer constituted by law to serve the public in non-contentious matters usually concerned with estates, deeds, powers-of-attorney, and foreign and international business...
, and George H. Koper, a reporter for The Courier-Journal
The Courier-Journal
The Courier-Journal, locally called "The C-J", is the main newspaper for the city of Louisville, Kentucky, USA. According to the 1999 Editor & Publisher International Yearbook, the paper is the 48th largest daily paper in the United States and the single largest in Kentucky.- Origins :The...
. Officials requested the presence of the notary and the reporter anticipating that Bethea, or someone else, might accuse them of coercing his confession.
On June 12, 1936, Bethea made a third confession and told the captain of the guards where he had hidden the jewelry. Owensboro police searched a barn in Owensboro and found the jewelry, where Bethea said he had left it.
Under Kentucky law, the grand jury
Grand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...
could not convene until June 22, and the prosecutor decided to charge Bethea solely with rape. The reason was, under the statutes then in force, if a punishment of death was given for murder and robbery, it was to be carried out by electrocution
Electric chair
Execution by electrocution, usually performed using an electric chair, is an execution method originating in the United States in which the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes placed on the body...
at the state penitentiary in Eddyville; however, rape could be punished by public hanging in the county seat where the crime occurred. To avoid a potential legal dilemma as to whether Bethea would be hanged or electrocuted, the prosecutor elected to charge Bethea only with the crime of rape. Bethea was never charged with the remaining crimes of theft, robbery, burglary, or murder. After one hour and forty minutes, the grand jury returned an indictment, charging Bethea with rape.
On June 25, 1936, officers returned Bethea to Owensboro for the trial. Bethea was unhelpful to his state-appointed attorneys, William L. Wilson, William W. "Bill" Kirtley, Carroll Byron, and C. W. Wells, Jr. He said that a Clyde Maddox would provide an alibi, but Maddox claimed he did not even know Bethea. In the end, they subpoenaed four witnesses: Maddox, Ladd Moorman, Willie Johnson (whom Bethea had implicated as an accomplice in his second confession) and Allen McDaniel. Only the first three were served, because the sheriff's office could not find a person named Allen McDaniel.
On the night before the trial, Bethea announced to his lawyers that he wanted to plead guilty, and he did so the next day at the start of the trial. The prosecutor, who was asking for the death penalty, still presented the state's case to the jury, since the jury would decide the sentence. The first twelve of 111 people called for jury duty were selected.
During his opening statement, the Commonwealth's Attorney
Commonwealth's Attorney
Commonwealth's Attorney is the title given to the elected prosecutor of felony crimes in Kentucky and Virginia. Other states refer to similar prosecutors as District Attorney or State's Attorney....
Herman Birkhead said, "This is one of the most dastardly, beastly, cowardly crimes ever committed in Daviess County. Justice demands and the Commonwealth will ask and expect a verdict of the death penalty by hanging."
After questioning 21 witnesses, the prosecution closed its case. The defense did not call any witnesses or cross-examine the witnesses who testified for the prosecution. After a closing statement by the prosecutor, the judge instructed the jury that since Bethea had pled guilty, their only task was to "…fix his punishment, at confinement in the penitentiary for not less than ten years nor more than twenty years, or at death." After only four and a half minutes of deliberation, the jury returned with a sentence, death by hanging. Bethea was then quickly removed from the courthouse and returned to the Jefferson County Jail.
Back in Louisville, Bethea acquired five new black lawyers - Charles Ewbank Tucker, Stephen A. Burnley, Charles W. Anderson, Jr., Harry E. Bonaparte, and R. Everett Ray. They worked without pay to challenge the sentence, something they saw as their ethical duty for the indigent defendant. On July 10, 1936, they filed a motion for a new trial. The judge summarily denied this on the grounds that under Section 273 of the Kentucky Code of Practice in Criminal Cases, a motion for a new trial had to have been received before the end of the court's term, which had ended on July 4, 1936.
They then attempted to appeal to the Kentucky Court of Appeals
Kentucky Court of Appeals
The Kentucky Court of Appeals is the lower of Kentucky's two appellate courts, under the Kentucky Supreme Court. Prior to a 1975 amendment to the Kentucky Constitution the Kentucky Court of Appeals was the only appellate court in Kentucky....
, which was also not in session. On July 29, 1936, Justice Gus Thomas returned to Frankfort
Frankfort, Kentucky
Frankfort is a city in Kentucky that serves as the state capital and the county seat of Franklin County. The population was 27,741 at the 2000 census; by population it is the 5th smallest state capital in the United States...
where he heard the oral motion. Justice Thomas refused to permit the appeal to be filed on the grounds that the trial court record was incomplete, which only included the judge's ruling. Although it may seem that Bethea's lawyers were incompetent, they knew the appeal would be denied, and this was only a formality in order to exhaust state court remedies before they filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in a federal court.
Once Justice Thomas denied the motion to file a belated appeal, Bethea's attorneys filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus
Habeas corpus
is a writ, or legal action, through which a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention. The remedy can be sought by the prisoner or by another person coming to his aid. Habeas corpus originated in the English legal system, but it is now available in many nations...
in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky at Louisville. A hearing was held on August 5, 1936 at the Federal Building in Louisville before United States District Judge Elwood Hamilton. During the hearing, Bethea claimed that he had not wanted to plead guilty but had been forced to by his lawyers, and that he had wanted to subpoena three witnesses to testify on his behalf, but the lawyers had also not done this. Bethea also claimed that his five confessions had been made under duress
Duress
In jurisprudence, duress or coercion refers to a situation whereby a person performs an act as a result of violence, threat or other pressure against the person. Black's Law Dictionary defines duress as "any unlawful threat or coercion used... to induce another to act [or not act] in a manner...
and that when he signed one of them, he did not know what he was signing. The Commonwealth brought several witnesses to refute these claims. Judge Hamilton denied the habeas corpus petition and ruled that the hanging could proceed.
The hanging
Although the crime was infamous in the surrounding areas, it came to nationwide attention because of one fact — the sheriffSheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
of Daviess County was a woman. Florence Thompson had become sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
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
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
, 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
Trapdoor
A trapdoor is a door set into a floor or ceiling .Originally, trapdoors were sack traps in mills, and allowed the sacks to pass up through the mill while naturally falling back to a closed position....
, 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 Behme at McLeansboro
McLeansboro, Illinois
McLeansboro is a city in Hamilton County, Illinois, United States. The population was 2,883 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Hamilton County. Located in Southern Illinois, the town was named for Dr. William B. McLean, who donated the land for its founding...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, in 1896, which had resulted in the condemned man suffering. 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, 1936, the Governor of Kentucky
Governor of Kentucky
The Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky is the head of the executive branch of government in the U.S. state of Kentucky. Fifty-six men and one woman have served as Governor of Kentucky. The governor's term is four years in length; since 1992, incumbents have been able to seek re-election once...
, Albert Chandler
Happy Chandler
Albert Benjamin "Happy" Chandler, Sr. was a politician from the US state of Kentucky. He represented the state in the U.S. Senate and served as its 44th and 49th governor. Aside from his political positions, he also served as the second Commissioner of Major League Baseball from 1945 to 1951 and...
, signed Bethea's execution warrant
Execution warrant
An execution warrant is a writ which authorizes the execution of a judgment of death on an individual...
and set the execution for sunrise
Sunrise
Sunrise is the instant at which the upper edge of the Sun appears above the horizon in the east. Sunrise should not be confused with dawn, which is the point at which the sky begins to lighten, some time before the sun itself appears, ending twilight...
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
Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky
The office of lieutenant governor of Kentucky has existed under the last three of Kentucky's four constitutions, beginning in 1797. The lieutenant governor serves as governor of Kentucky under circumstances similar to the Vice President of the United States assuming the powers of the presidency...
Keen Johnson
Keen Johnson
Keen Johnson was the 45th Governor of Kentucky, serving from 1939 to 1943. He remains the only journalist to have served in that capacity. After serving in World War I, Johnson purchased and edited the Elizabethtown Mirror...
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
Last meal
The last meal is a customary part of a condemned prisoner's last day. Often, the day of, or before, the appointed time of execution, the prisoner receives a last meal, as well as religious rites, if they desire. In the United States, inmates generally may not ask for an alcoholic drink...
consisted of fried chicken
Fried chicken
Fried chicken is a dish consisting of chicken pieces usually from broiler chickens which have been floured or battered and then pan fried, deep fried, or pressure fried. The breading adds a crisp coating or crust to the exterior...
, pork chop
Pork chop
A pork chop is a cut of pork cut perpendicularly to the spine of the pig and usually containing a rib or part of a vertebra, served as an individual portion.-Variations:...
s, mashed potato
Mashed potato
Mashed potato is made by mashing freshly boiled potatoes with a ricer, fork, potato masher, food mill, or whipping them with a hand beater. Dehydrated and frozen mashed potatoes are available in many places...
es, pickled cucumber
Pickled cucumber
A pickled cucumber is a cucumber that has been pickled in a brine, vinegar, or other solution and left to ferment for a period of time, by either immersing the cucumbers in an acidic solution or through souring by lacto-fermentation.-Gherkin:A gherkin is not only...
s, cornbread
Cornbread
Cornbread is a generic name for any number of quick breads containing cornmeal and leavened by baking powder.-History:Native Americans were using ground corn for food thousands of years before European explorers arrived in the New World...
, lemon pie, and ice cream
Ice cream
Ice cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners...
, 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.
It was estimated that a crowd of 20,000 people gathered to watch the execution, with thousands coming from out of town. Hash arrived at the site intoxicated, wearing a white suit and a white Panama hat
Panama hat
A Panama hat is a traditional brimmed hat of Ecuadorian origin that is made from the plaited leaves of the toquilla straw plant...
. 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 Bethea made his final confession to Father Lammers, of the Cathedral of the Assumption in Louisville, the black hood was placed over his head, and three large straps placed around his ankles, thighs, arms and chest.
Hanna placed the noose around Bethea's 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 sprang 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
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
. Instead, he was buried in a pauper's grave at the Elmwood Cemetery in Owensboro.
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 drunken condition. Hanna further 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 AssemblyKentucky General Assembly
The Kentucky General Assembly, also called the Kentucky Legislature, is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Kentucky.The General Assembly meets annually in the state capitol building in Frankfort, Kentucky, convening on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in January...
met in biennial sessions. Although the media circus surrounding the Bethea execution embarrassed members of the Kentucky legislature
Legislature
A legislature is a kind of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend, and repeal laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. In addition to enacting laws, legislatures usually have exclusive authority to raise or lower taxes and adopt the budget and...
, 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
Covington, Kentucky
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 43,370 people, 18,257 households, and 10,132 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,301.3 people per square mile . There were 20,448 housing units at an average density of 1,556.5 per square mile...
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
Kentucky House of Representatives
The Kentucky House of Representatives is the lower house of the Kentucky General Assembly. It is composed of 100 Representatives elected from single-member districts throughout the Commonwealth. Not more than two counties can be joined to form a House district, except when necessary to preserve...
. After both houses approved the bill on March 12, 1938, Governor 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 33-year-old black singer who was privately hanged in Covington on June 3, 1938.
See also
- List of individuals executed in Kentucky
- Capital punishment in the United StatesCapital punishment in the United StatesCapital punishment in the United States, in practice, applies only for aggravated murder and more rarely for felony murder. Capital punishment was a penalty at common law, for many felonies, and was enforced in all of the American colonies prior to the Declaration of Independence...
External links
- Find-a-grave entry (Includes two photos of Bethea), TIME Magazine, August 24, 1936
- After 75 years, nation's last public hanging haunts Owensboro, Brett Barrouquere, Associated Press, August 13, 2011