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After 75 years, last public hanging haunts city
Pioneer Press ^ | 08/13/2011 | Brett Barrouquere

Posted on 08/14/2011 5:27:47 PM PDT by KyGeezer

OWENSBORO, Ky. - Bob Howe points to an overgrown, muddy patch of land in a cemetery in Owensboro, gesturing to where the grave of the last man publicly executed in the United States may be.

"I think it was over there," said Howe, an 81-year-old lifelong Owensboro resident and retired county coroner. "I used to pass it on the way to school. That's what I was told. It was over there somewhere."

The grave is anonymous and unmarked, like other places associated with Rainey Bethea's hanging Aug. 14, 1936. On the 75th anniversary of the execution, it is something some in Owensboro would like history to remember differently.

Bethea, a farmhand and sometime criminal, went to the gallows near the banks of the Ohio River before a throng of people estimated at as many as 20,000 strong. The execution drew national media coverage focused on a black man being executed by a white, female sheriff with the help of a professional hangman.

"It was not a carnival in the end," insisted 85-year-old James Thompson, the son of then-sheriff Florence Thompson.

Still, Kentucky lawmakers cited the negative publicity surrounding Bethea's hanging in ending public executions in the state in 1938. Kentucky was the last state to do so. Later, Gov. Albert B. "Happy" Chandler expressed regret at having approved the repeal, claiming, "Our streets are no longer safe."

(Excerpt) Read more at twincities.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; US: Kentucky
KEYWORDS: enemedia; hanging; owensboro; racebaitingmedia; racecard; rape
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To: KyGeezer

What was the execution method there after banning hanging? Elec chair, firing squad?


21 posted on 08/14/2011 5:57:26 PM PDT by umgud
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To: yarddog
I agree, they were totally deserving of being hanged. Yes, the book made the characters a bit too sympathetic. It still was good reading tho.

Has to be said: In Cold Blood is truly one of the most riveting works of American literature.

But Truman Capote is still a blithering fag asshat.

22 posted on 08/14/2011 6:00:27 PM PDT by Flycatcher (God speaks to us, through the supernal lightness of birds, in a special type of poetry.)
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To: Venturer

If you are interested in the details of the murder, conviction and hanging there is a good online book...The Last Public Execution in America.

http://www.geocities.com/lastpublichang/


23 posted on 08/14/2011 6:04:41 PM PDT by KyGeezer
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To: Flycatcher

One of my professors at Troy was from Monroeville, Al. I think he was also kin to Capote and Harper Lee but am not certain.

I once asked him about Capote and he did an imitation of him talking. He clearly was not a big fan.


24 posted on 08/14/2011 6:05:59 PM PDT by yarddog
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To: KyGeezer

” gesturing to where the grave of the last man publicly executed in the United States may be.”

BS, three to four everyday are executed in this country, maybe not directly by court order, but by design regardlessly


25 posted on 08/14/2011 6:10:47 PM PDT by SF_Redux (Sarah stands for accountablility and personal responsiblity, democrats can't live with that)
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To: KyGeezer

I was talking to a friend on Saturday about the 30 hangings in Downieville Ca near Quincy where he lived a a kid. It is preserved as a Sate Park...


26 posted on 08/14/2011 6:17:34 PM PDT by tubebender (The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some very good ideas)
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To: patriot08
Guess what he did to get hung

You do know the difference between being hanged and being hung, don't you?

27 posted on 08/14/2011 6:20:24 PM PDT by PAR35
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To: Erik Latranyi

Isn’t that where the Waltrips are from?


28 posted on 08/14/2011 6:25:35 PM PDT by Overtaxed
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To: PAR35

“They said you was hung.”

“And they was right.”


29 posted on 08/14/2011 6:25:43 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Flycatcher

The movie adaption of In Cold Blood is good movie. It got 4 Academy Award nominations.

Smith and Hickock certainly deserved to be hung for killing Mr. and Mrs. Clutter and two of their teenage children.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Cold_Blood_(film)

Netflix doesn’t stream it but they have the DVD.


30 posted on 08/14/2011 6:28:17 PM PDT by KyGeezer
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To: KyGeezer
Haven't seen the movie.

But as for the book, I think it's the only book I've ever read in one sitting.

I literally could not put it down.

31 posted on 08/14/2011 6:32:55 PM PDT by Flycatcher (God speaks to us, through the supernal lightness of birds, in a special type of poetry.)
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To: KyGeezer

“I think it was over there,”

He sounds all broken up over it still. /sarc

I think losing a HS football game to a nearby rival would be far more traumatic. This would be at worst a minor inconvenience when idiot reporters come around to grind their favorite ax.


32 posted on 08/14/2011 6:45:58 PM PDT by Gil4 (Sometimes it's not low self-esteem - it's just accurate self-assessment.)
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To: Overtaxed

Yes.


33 posted on 08/14/2011 6:58:31 PM PDT by miele man
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To: Flycatcher
Has to be said: In Cold Blood is truly one of the most riveting works of American literature.

I agree. Outstanding read. The film followed the book almost to a tee, quite rare for Hollywood.

34 posted on 08/14/2011 6:58:44 PM PDT by Inyo-Mono (My greatest fear is that when I'm gone my wife will sell my guns for what I told her I paid for them)
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To: Inyo-Mono

There was a TV series too. It was not bad but basically just duplicated the movie. Also the movie “Capote” was pretty much about the same story.


35 posted on 08/14/2011 7:10:14 PM PDT by yarddog
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To: KyGeezer

In 1937 the last hanging in my hometown was performed.

My hometown of Kennett Missouri had hangings, the last one in 1937. For the one in 1935, my dad was town constable at the time, but as it was the county carrying out the execution, he had no participation in it. The hanging was of a 25 year old Black man convicted of raping two White girls. According to the local paper, an estimated 350-400 people were inside the enclosure to witness the hanging, but another crowd of 5,000 were just outside. The paper also gave a rather grisly account of the 13 minutes it took for the man to actually die after he dropped 9 feet.

Was just a kid, but I personally knew Tom Donaldson the sheriff who pulled the lever, remember him as affable, but was always a little spooked to be around him.

1935: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:hOMsW5gdWnQJ:websolutions.learfield.com/deathrow/gestalt/go.cfm%3Fobjectid%3DF3CF9EEA-59B1-4741-868A9070150A31D6+august+1935%2BC.D.+ward+hanged+in+Kennett+missouri&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&source=www.google.com

1937:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:gf6T-ilZi9wJ:websolutions.learfield.com/deathrow/gestalt/go.cfm%3Fobjectid%3D2E9B8A64-BC46-453E-8D4B51D14763C431+Kennett,+Missouri+hangings&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&source=www.google.com


36 posted on 08/14/2011 7:22:57 PM PDT by Sea Parrot (The entitlement class will prove to be the liberals very own creation of a Frankenstein monster.)
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To: KyGeezer
Gov. Albert B. "Happy" Chandler expressed regret at having approved the repeal, claiming, "Our streets are no longer safe."

You don't say? I think public hangings should be reinstituted. Good education for feral youth, and from what I gather from the article, it seemed to spur local commerce.

On the spititual side, I hope the young man looked to Christ for forgiveness, and that I can call him my brother in the Lord.

37 posted on 08/14/2011 7:25:03 PM PDT by Salvavida (The restoration of the U.S.A. starts with filling the pews at every Bible-believing church.)
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To: PAR35

Realized my mistake after I posted..LOL


38 posted on 08/14/2011 7:47:28 PM PDT by patriot08 (TEXAS GAL- born and bred and proud of it!)
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To: KyGeezer

“I think it was over there... That’s what I was told. It was over there somewhere.” says an 81 year old man.
But the whole town is “haunted” by it.
Anyone else sensing a slight disconnect here?


39 posted on 08/14/2011 7:48:52 PM PDT by astyanax (Liberalism: Logic's retarded cousin.)
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To: KyGeezer

Nothing wrong with a good hanging.


40 posted on 08/14/2011 7:51:22 PM PDT by BigCinBigD
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