Rainey Bethea - The last person publicly hanged in America 1936 [736x500 - 100KB]

(post is archived)

[–] • 3 pts

When they talk about lynchings, as usual, the communists leave out:

1) Most of the blacks lynched were criminals.

2) Whites were lynched extensively for the same reason as blacks: http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/shipp/lynchingsstate.html

3) The reason for lynchings was not hate. It was because court houses and police departments barely existed if they even had any regionally in those days. Local communities had to take the law into their own hands.

Were innocent people lynched? Of course, on both sides. Humans are vicious chimpanzees not known for the eve hand of justice. However, the real story is not a story of whites lynching blacks. The real story is that at a time when 2% of the population or less was black they accounted for most of the crime for which lynchings were deployed.

Just like today minus the lynching.

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[–] • 0 pt

Yep.

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[–] • 2 pts

Glory days, indeed.

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[–] • 0 pt

I'd like to know why the practice ended.

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[–] • 1 pt

From wiki. TL:DR they left a woman in charge and they let a drunk guy do the hanging. I'm sure there was more to it. We'd probably have to go back and read newspapers of the time after.

The crime was infamous locally, but came to nationwide attention because the sheriff of Daviess County was a woman. Florence Shoemaker Thompson had become sheriff on April 13, 1936, after her husband, sheriff Everett Thompson, unexpectedly died of pneumonia on April 10. Florence became sheriff through widow's succession, and as sheriff of the county she was tasked with hanging Bethea.

Arthur L. Hash, a former Louisville police officer, offered his services free of charge to perform the execution. Thompson accepted this offer. He asked that she not make his name public.[citation needed]

On August 6, the Governor of Kentucky, Albert Chandler, signed Bethea's execution warrant and set the execution for sunrise on August 14. 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 had recently planted, at significant cost, new shrubs and flowers. Chandler was out-of-state, so Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky Keen Johnson, as acting governor, 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, professional hangman Phil Hanna of Epworth, Illinois visited Bethea and instructed him to stand on the X that would be marked on the trapdoor.

It was estimated that a crowd of about 20,000 people gathered to watch the execution.[citation needed] 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 that he would pull 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. After Bethea made his final confession to Father Lammers of the Cathedral of the Assumption in Louisville, officers placed a black hood over his head and fastened three large straps 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. Bethea fell 8 feet and his neck was instantly broken. After, two doctors confirmed he was dead. His body was taken to Andrew & Wheatley Funeral Home. He wanted his body to be sent to his sister in South Carolina, but against these wishes, he was buried in a pauper's grave at the Rosehill Elmwood Cemetery in Owensboro.

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 spot where the scaffold stood (approximately 37.775248° -87.116462°) is now part of a drop-off/pick-up lane in front of the Owensboro Convention Center.

From wiki. TL:DR they left a woman in charge and they let a drunk guy do the hanging. I'm sure there was more to it. We'd probably have to go back and read newspapers of the time after. The crime was infamous locally, but came to nationwide attention because the sheriff of Daviess County was a woman. Florence Shoemaker Thompson had become sheriff on April 13, 1936, after her husband, sheriff Everett Thompson, unexpectedly died of pneumonia on April 10. Florence became sheriff through widow's succession, and as sheriff of the county she was tasked with hanging Bethea. Arthur L. Hash, a former Louisville police officer, offered his services free of charge to perform the execution. Thompson accepted this offer. He asked that she not make his name public.[citation needed] On August 6, the Governor of Kentucky, Albert Chandler, signed Bethea's execution warrant and set the execution for sunrise on August 14. 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 had recently planted, at significant cost, new shrubs and flowers. Chandler was out-of-state, so Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky Keen Johnson, as acting governor, 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, professional hangman Phil Hanna of Epworth, Illinois visited Bethea and instructed him to stand on the X that would be marked on the trapdoor. It was estimated that a crowd of about 20,000 people gathered to watch the execution.[citation needed] 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 that he would pull 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. After Bethea made his final confession to Father Lammers of the Cathedral of the Assumption in Louisville, officers placed a black hood over his head and fastened three large straps 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. Bethea fell 8 feet and his neck was instantly broken. After, two doctors confirmed he was dead. His body was taken to Andrew & Wheatley Funeral Home. He wanted his body to be sent to his sister in South Carolina, but against these wishes, he was buried in a pauper's grave at the Rosehill Elmwood Cemetery in Owensboro. 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 spot where the scaffold stood (approximately 37.775248° -87.116462°) is now part of a drop-off/pick-up lane in front of the Owensboro Convention Center.

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