The Last Public Execution in America
{Don} Everyone in Owensboro loved Lischia Rarick Edwards, 70 years wise in 1936.
On the last day she lived, she was brutally raped and murdered in her own home, in her own bed in Owensboro.
Before we begin today’s program let us pause to mourn her death and grieve for the generations of family and friends who have suffered so much pain as a result of her murder.
The man linked to this heinous crime by physical evidence and no less than five confessions in five separate venues, was brought to the jail house in Louisville right behind me to protect him from being lynched.
After his case was reviewed by the Federal court in Louisville and after he was baptized , he was taken from the jail we are standing in front of at 1:00 in the morning, driven to a parking lot in Owensboro where he was legally and publically hanged from a portable scaffold by an intoxicated headsman in front of 20,000 spectators.
The legal and political establishment and some decent people of goodwill thought they were doing the right thing.
Today, as we gather to reflect on the last public execution in America , three death warrants sit on Governor Beshear’s desk waiting for him to give the order to let the injections begin.
{Mitzi} It was the event that forever ended the spectacle of public executions in the United States. And it happened right here in Kentucky.
The date was August 14, 1936.
The scene was a parking lot in Owensboro.
There was a cast of thousands…
Newspapers from around the country sent writers and photographers to cover the event. Here is a sampling of what they had to say…
{Jill} The Boston Daily Record reported: “Cheering, booing, eating, joking, 20,000 persons witnessed
the public execution of Rainey Bethea, 22, frightened Negro boy, at Owensboro, KY, yesterday. In callous, carnival spirit, the mob charged the gallows after the trap was sprung, tore the executioner’s hood from the corpse, chipped the gallows for souvenirs. Mothers attended with babes in arms, hot dog venders hawked their wares and a woman across the street held a ‘necktie breakfast’ for relatives from surrounding towns. ..”
The New York Herald Tribune reported: “Town Gay for Public Hanging.” The Philadelphia Record wrote: “They Ate Hot Dogs While a Man Died on the Gallows.” One other Boston paper boasted a headline that read, “Children Picnic as Killer Pays.”
{Mitzi} But what really happened that summer morning in Kentucky? Let’s recount the last few hours of
the condemned man as best we know them.
First a few words about the characters in this drama and the events that led up to the hanging.
{Shiela} Lischia Rarick Edwards, the Victim of the Crime
Mrs. Edwards was a homemaker who was raped and murdered on June 7, 1936 in her residence in Owensboro, Kentucky. She was 69 years old at the time of her death. Lischia was the widow of farmer and cattleman Elza Edwards, who had died unexpectedly of apoplexy in 1915. A few years before her death, she rented three upstairs rooms in the home of Emmett Wells at 322 East Fifth Street where the crime later occurred. Although not wealthy, Mrs. Edwards did have an amount of money in the bank that allowed her to live comfortably, and enabled her to leave a modest estate of just under $10,000 to her only survivor: her son Dr. Philip R. Edwards.
{Ken} Rainey Bethea, the Man Executed for the Rape and Murder
A native of Roanoke, Virginia, Rainey Bethea was probably 22 or 23 years old at the time of the crime for which he was convicted and hanged. Bethea attended school for only three years. As an adult he attended a Baptist Church and its Sunday School. He stood five feet four-and-three-quarter inches tall and weighed 128 pounds. Bethea had lived for a time just a few feet from the residence of the murder victim, and in fact had been briefly employed by her. He was probably considered a petty criminal. Prior to the murder he had spent a portion of 1936 in prison for theft and was on probation at the time of the murder. While in prison he was treated for syphilis.
{Jill} Sheriff Florence Thompson
Mrs. Thompson was the widow of Daviess County Sheriff Everitt Thompson. Upon her husband’s sudden death on Good Friday, April 10, 1936, Florence was asked if she would consider filling out the remaining portion of her late husband’s term as Sheriff. Because she had small children and no other source of income she accepted the offer. Later, under a provision of a relatively new Kentucky law, Florence learned that she would have responsibility for conducting the hanging of convicted murderer Rainey Bethea. She was informed that she might be called upon to pull the hangman’s lever herself. The prospect that she would become the first American woman in history to hang a man was the fact that got the attention of the national news media and ultimately drew over 20,000 people to Owensboro for a 5:30 a.m. hanging on August 14, 1936.
{Don} Arthur L. Hash, the Hangman
On July 7, 1936, Arthur L. Hash, a former Louisville policeman, posted a letter to sheriff Florence Thompson, offering his services, free of charge, to serve as executioner in the forthcoming hanging. She accepted his offer. After the hanging the Louisville Courier-Journal revealed that Hash had resigned from Louisville’s police department on October 8, 1929, following complaints about his drunkenness and because he fired a revolver near his wife’s apartment. He had been arrested a total of 14 times, six for drunkenness and disorderly conduct; four for drunkenness, two for grand larceny, one for disorderly conduct, and one for mayhem. He showed up drunk for the hanging.
{Hannah} George Phillip Hanna, the Consultant for the Execution
Born in Epworth, Illinois, George Phillip Hanna witnessed his first hanging when he was only 22 years old. The execution was botched by the inexperienced hangman. Deeply troubled by what he had seen, Hanna learned all that he could about the proper manner to conduct a hanging and became a sought-after consultant in cities across the country. Although he never pulled the hangman’s lever himself, he would build the scaffold, which he transported from site to site. He advised the condemned on how to conduct himself to minimize suffering. Hanna even adjusted the knot of the hangman’s noose prior to the drop of the trap door. Although he never accepted cash payment for conducting the hangings, he did ask for and received the weapon that had been used to commit the crime. Hanna suffered from algophobia which is characterized by a morbid fear of pain. While he could supervise a hanging, he could not bear to watch someone slaughter a chicken. The execution of Rainey Bethea was Hanna’s seventh hanging.
{Terry} Rev. Herman L. Lammers
Roman Catholic priest Herman L. Lammers served as confessor to Rainey Bethea, before, during and after the trial. Fr. Lammers even stood beside Rainey Bethea on the gallows moments before the hanging and literally heard the condemned man’s final words. Lammers had been ordained a priest in 1932 and was assistant pastor of the Louisville’s Cathedral of the Assumption at the time of the incarceration of Bethea in the Louisville jail in the summer of 1936.
{Don} The Crime
According to the transcript of the trial, early in the morning of Sunday, June 7, 1936, Rainey Bethea entered Lischia Rarick Edwards’ residence on the second floor in Owensboro. His initial plan appeared to be to steal her jewels and leave without detection. He came in through a window only a few feet from where she was sleeping. She suddenly awakened, but before she could cry out for help, Bethea raped and strangled her. He partially covered her body with bedclothes, and then rummaged through her jewelry, taking some while accidentally leaving behind one of his own rings. That ring was subsequently used to connect him to the crime. Mrs. Edwards’ body was discovered by friends when she failed to appear at church on Sunday morning. Several days later Bethea was arrested and charged with rape but not murder. Conviction of rape would allow Bethea to be hanged in public in Daviess County where the crime occurred; conviction of murder would require his electrocution at the State penitentiary. On five separate occasions he confessed to the crime. Because of fear that he would be lynched in Owensboro, Bethea was transported to Louisville’s jail where he was imprisoned until just hours before his execution.
{Jill} Although the hanging took place in Owensboro, the story actually began in Louisville on the
afternoon of August 13…
{Don} As was traditional in the Jefferson County Jail, the jailers asked Bethea whether he would like anything special for his last meal. At 4:00 p.m., he ate fried chicken, pork chops, mashed potatoes, pickles, cornbread, lemon pie, and ice cream. Twelve hours later, he would be back in Owensboro. Jailer Connors remarked that Bethea had been a good prisoner while in Louisville.
{Terry} That evening, while waiting to die, Bethea wrote a final letter to his sister, which stated as follows:
Dear Sister
This is my last letter and I have told them to send you my body and I want you to put it beside my father and I am saved and dont [sic] you worry about me because i [sic] goin [sic] to meet my maker and you must pray to meet me some day in the outher [sic] world so you must pray heard [sic] sister that we will meet someday and don't you worry at all becuse [sic] I saved looking to meet you someday in the outher [sic] world So good by [sic] and pray that we will meet agin [sic] some day. Mrs. Ora Fladger, R.F.D. #3, Box 135, Nichols, S.C.
Father Lammers visited Bethea in his cell and told him that he would accompany him to Owensboro and stand beside him during the hanging.
{Don} Late on August 13, deputies drove a car to Louisville to pick up Bethea. A reporter with the Messenger snapped a photograph in the jail of Bethea standing handcuffed between the two deputies. They left the jail at about 1:00 a.m. As they drove toward Owensboro on U.S. Highway 60, Bethea commented, "I'll die happy. I have made my peace with God." They arrived back in Owensboro at about 4:00 a.m. Phil Hanna went to the jail to talk to Bethea and the officers. Pursuant to his regular protocal, he made sure Bethea would be handcuffed in front, and he told Bethea to stand on the "X" marked on the trap door.
{Jill} People in the crowds naturally became hungry because many of them stayed at the hanging site for several hours. Some enterprising youngsters erected concession stands in the vicinity of the gallows. Others sold hot dogs, pop corn, and soft drinks, unaware that photographers were taking pictures. Little did those selling and purchasing snacks realize the impact that this would have in the national press.
{Ken} Thousands of out-of-town people began to compress into Owensboro. People arrived by train, and several nonpaying passengers disembarked from a freight train. A school bus from Dixon unloaded twenty-two people. The streets were full of individuals who had traveled from surrounding counties as well as nearby states to witness the execution. With every hotel in the city full, hundreds of these folks stayed up all night, others brought cots and slept outside awaiting the morning's events. Residents of Owensboro were kept awake by the continuous murmur of talking and the relentless scuffle of people walking down the streets.
Many of the journalists arrived by airplane. The Chicago Times sent a special truck rigged with a developing room and a portable telephoto unit. The Associated Press and the Louisville newspapers prepared to airlift their photographs of the event to Louisville. The photographers thought they were about to photograph history taking place when the first woman in America hanged a man.
{Shiela} Fearful that onlookers might become drunk and disorderly, Mayor Fred Weir ordered the police to close at midnight all drinking establishments in Owensboro except those which sold beer. Before midnight, police arrested two drunks. After midnight, a woman was arrested for intoxication.
{Jill} Florence Thompson arose early on the morning of August 14, 1936. Realizing the number of people she might encounter, she dressed neatly, wearing a navy blue store-bought lace dress.
Arriving in town, she was again confronted by reporters who wanted to know whether she would drop the platform. All of the events had made her quite nervous. She told them, "I have made up my mind who will perform the execution, but I shall make no announcement. Nobody will know until the time comes. Why should I reveal my plans?"
{Don} The crowd grew so large that, at 4:20 a.m., officials at the foot of Locust Street opened a gate to a wire enclosure surrounding the lot in order to permit the horde to filter inside. The crowd grew until it reached Second Street. Phil Hanna tested his trap door, but the door stuck. At the time, some estimated that the crowd had grown to 15,000. Several spectators climbed onto the roofs of buildings in order to get a better view.
H. Lawrence Ott, a constable from Louisville, seated himself at a counter in an Owensboro restaurant. With his pistol in a shoulder holster, he accidentally banged the counter, causing the gun to discharge. The bullet punctured his trouser pocket and hit the metal rim of the seat. Although it plowed into the floor of the restaurant, Deputy Constable Louis Fowler as well as three bystanders were mildly injured by fragments.
{Jill} At 4:25 a.m., an F.B.I. agent drove Florence in a black car bearing Lee County license plates to within 150 feet north of the scaffold, where he and the Sheriff waited. She sat there, worrying. If, for any reason, Hash did not perform as promised, she would have to do it herself.
{Shiela} At 4:30 a.m., Leonard A. Peters, his wife, and another couple, were driving from Evansville to Owensboro to witness the hanging. In an attempt to overtake a truck, he ran into a ditch and was killed instantly. His wife and the couple in the car survived.
At 4:35 a.m., Hanna leaned a ladder against the middle crossbeam of the gallows. He climbed the ladder and wrapped the rope several times around the crossbeam. At 4:47 a.m., Hanna again tested the trap door on the scaffold to make sure it was working properly.
The sun rose at 5:12 a.m. and began to illuminate the city. Another hot summer morning, the sky was clear, and the dew remained fresh on the ground.
{Ken} Most of the huge crowd had been awake all night. The aura of the morning's forthcoming events had kept them awake, but underneath it all, most were weary. The Owensboro Messenger later reported that the crowd represented nine counties in Kentucky as well as five states. At first, no blacks appeared. Only sixteen minutes remained until the majority of the group would, for the first time, witness a man's death. More and more people began to compress into the streets of Owensboro. Everyone wanted a good view.
Arthur Hash mounted the scaffold, intoxicated. Hash was rather conspicuous, wearing a white suit and a white Panama hat. A reporter asked him who he was. Attempting to dodge the question, Hash responded, "I'm Daredevil Dick of Montana," but some of the Louisville policemen in the crowd as well as the Louisville reporters recognized him as a former Louisville policeman.
{Don} Bethea’s appeals and his fight to obtain a Writ of Habeas Corpus were both lost. Things were hopeless, and not even Gov. Chandler was willing to help him. Time was running out. A few other spectators climbed some of the light poles and clung there to see better.
At 5:21, a.m., Bethea walked out of the front door of the jail with Deputy Reisz holding his right arm and Deputy Dishman holding his left. Father Lammers walked close behind the three men. Bethea's hands were handcuffed in front of him. As he walked, he wore a tan-colored pair of trousers and a dark-colored shirt. He wanted to look good for the crowd, so he buttoned the top button of his shirt but wore no necktie. The jail was southeast of the scaffold, so Bethea walked between the officers toward the death site. The huge crowd parted as he was led to his death. No one shouted at him, no one remarked. They just gazed as he marched onward.
{Shiela} At 5:23 a.m., as Bethea reached the base of the steps, his guards stepped back. He sat down and said, "Let me take off these shoes. I want to put on this clean pair of socks." He removed his shoes and, with handcuffed hands, removed his dirty socks, replacing them with a brand new pair which he pulled from a side pocket. Wearing only the new socks, he left his shoes at the base and then hurriedly climbed the eight steps of the base and then the thirteen steps with the two deputies holding his arms. No one bothered the shoes he left behind.
Reaching the top, the condemned man tested the trap door with his left foot to make sure it was secure, then he stepped onto the doors, over the large "X" as Phil Hanna had instructed him. He turned and faced east, looking into the rising sun for the last time. Although given an opportunity to address the crowd, Bethea said nothing. The scaffold was crowded by twelve men, including Bethea, Deputy Sheriffs Dishman and Reisz; Father Lammers, of the Cathedral of the Assumption Church in Louisville; Sheriff Lester Pyle of White County, Illinois; G. Phil Hanna, the hangman; and Arthur Hash. Hash's hands were clenched to the lever which would trigger the trap door. The ladder which had been used to adjust the noose was propped up at an angle between two of the upright columns of the gallows.
{Terry} Father Lammers held up his hand to hush the crowd. Seeing the signal, the crowd quieted immediately. They just stood there, transfixed. From that moment forward, a nervous, grave silence fell upon the enormous assembly of witnesses. Bethea gave his last confession while Hash, intoxicated, embarrassed everyone by repeatedly asking Bethea to "say something." Bethea and the other men on the platform ignored Hash. No one demonstrated, and no one showed disrespect for the man's impending death, except some newspaper reporters who insisted that people who were blocking their view "get down." One asked, "What do you think we came here for?"
{Hannah} Hanna then placed a long, black hood over Bethea's head, which concealed Bethea's shoulders and his entire head. Bethea said that he wanted to talk to the priest again, but the request was ignored. Other assistants then began strapping three heavy leather straps around Bethea's body. The first strap was buckled around Bethea's ankles. The second was placed around his thighs, while Sheriff Lester Pyle, who had accompanied Hanna from White County, Illinois, buckled the third strap around Bethea's arms and chest. The three straps gave Bethea's clothes a rippled appearance.
{Jill} The hangman, Phil Hanna, stepped over to Bethea's left and placed the heavy hemp noose around Bethea's neck. The rope had been carefully oiled in order to permit the knot to slide into position and tighten with ease. Hash was still clutching the metal lever which operated the trap door. Hanna adjusted the noose to fit behind Bethea's left ear, while Bethea stood motionless, helpless. This was a standard procedure, which was followed in order to spare Bethea any suffering. So adjusted, the noose should break Bethea's neck when he fell, causing almost instant death.
Hash was waiting, still clasping the lever.
{Mitzi} Hanna stepped away, to Bethea's left. At 5:32 a.m., giving the prearranged signal, he nodded to Hash, but Hash, in his drunken stupor, did nothing. Hanna, growing impatient, then shouted, "Do it now." Hash fumbled, and one of the deputy sheriffs leaned onto the lever. The trap door dropped and Bethea fell about eight feet. The rope tightened, and Bethea swung only slightly at its end. His neck broken, Bethea's head was bent sharply almost touching his right shoulder.
Minutes later, as the man hung from the rope, Phil Hanna climbed down to the base of the scaffold and made a small slit in the hood so Father Lammers could anoint the body for the Last Sacraments. One of the physicians stepped onto the top of the railroad ties, near the base of the gallows, to feel Bethea's pulse. A staff of three physicians, including Dr. B. H. Sigler, Dr. W. L. Tyler, and Dr. John S. Oldham, felt Bethea's pulse several times before concluding that he was dead, some fourteen minutes after the trap door was sprung.
{Ken} Hash stumbled down the steps and said, "I'm drunk as hell. I am getting away from this town as soon as I can. Well anyhow it's over."
After Bethea finally expired, some of the guards lifted his lifeless, limber body, while the noose was removed from around his neck. The hangman cautioned them not to remove the hood from Bethea's head, for such an act would expose the face of death to the crowd.
Society was avenged.
{Don} Bethea's body was removed from the scaffold and placed in a reed basket, the type of coffin used for those who could not afford one. A hearse from the Andrew & Wheatley Funeral Home, a mortuary run by blacks, drove the body away to be prepared for burial. Later the body was taken to St. Stephens Catholic Church, where a requiem mass was said by Father Leo J. Denise at 8 a.m. Burial followed shortly thereafter, but Bethea's body was not sent to South Carolina as he requested. Instead, it was buried in a pauper's grave at the Owensboro Potter's Field. On the same day, Dr. Sigler and Dr. Tyler signed Bethea's death certificate, which stated "legal hanging" as the cause of death. They gave the official time of death at 5:45 a.m.
{Don} And so, society was avenged; and then horrified and then repulsed. Rainey Bethea was the last person to be publically executed in the United States.
Two more prisoners were subsequently hanged in Kentucky but the executions were private. By June, 1938 Kentucky abolished hanging and sixty years later the evolution from the noose to the needle was complete.
There have been three executions in Kentucky since 1957. The total will double if the governor signs the three death warrants now on his desk authorizing lethal injections. Can we be sure that multiple executions today will not one day be regarded with the same horror as the Rainey Bethea spectacle?
Are we willing to risk such a cost?
There was a cost in the Rainey Bethea execution. On August 17, 1936 A. L. Hash mailed a letter to Simon Smith, chief deputy sheriff of Daviess County. Apparently Deputy Smith asked Hash to send him a bill of costs:
{Ken} P.O. Box 502
Louisville, Ky.
August 17th, 36.
Mr. Simon Smith,
Chief Deputy Sheriff,
Daviess County
Owensboro, Kentucky
My Dear Mr. Smith:-
As per your request, I am sending you my expense account for trip to your city, and etc.
R. R. ticket $3.44c. Room in Planters Hotel $1.25c meals $1.00. and [sic taxi] Cab to and from Depot here 50c making a total of $6.19c. I am,
Your friend always,
A. L. Hash
{end}
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