Punishment such as the "death penalty" still exists in the United States, but this country has a long history of so-called "legal" public executions.
The last one was held in Owensboro, Kentucky in 1936. Rainey Bethea, a black man, was hanged for the rape and murder of a 70-year-old woman.
Rainey Bethea two weeks before the execution.
Florence Thompson was the sheriff at the time. She inherited this job from her husband Everett, who had died of pneumonia three months earlier. By law, she had to throw the noose on the convict herself, although she was allowed to hire someone to do it for her. The thought that a white female sheriff would be executed has greatly increased the excitement and attention from the public and the press.
Sheriff Florence Thompson.
Crime and arrest
Early on the morning of June 7, 1936, Bethea entered Liskia Edwards' home at 322 East Fifth Street.
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He entered the room, woke the woman up, then strangled her and raped her. After that, he began to look for valuables and stole several rings. During this time, he lost his own black celluloid prison ring, and was later unable to find it. He left the bedroom and hid the stolen jewelry in a barn not far from the house.
Towards lunchtime, the Smith family downstairs noticed that Edwards was not leaving the room. They were afraid that she might get sick and knocked on the door of her room, trying to wake her up. They found that the door was locked from the inside. They contacted a neighbor, Robert Richardson, hoping that he could help, he managed to knock out the key, but the other key could not open the door. Smith fetched a ladder, held it against the window, and climbed into the room where he found Edwards dead.
The Smiths called the police and a doctor, and during an examination of the room they found dirty footprints and Bethea's prison ring.
By Sunday evening, the police, using the fingerprints and the found ring of Rainey Bethea, already had a suspect. He was wanted for the next four days, and as a result he was detained.
A jury trial was held, which found him guilty and sentenced to be hanged.
On August 13, 1936, at 4:00 pm, Rainey Bethea dines for the last time in Louisville, Kentucky.
Rainey Bethea's final meal consisted of fried chicken, pork chops, mashed potatoes, pickles, cornbread, lemon pie and ice cream, which he ate at 4:00 pm on Aug. 13 in Louisville.
At about 1:00 am, the Davis County sheriffs departed from Bethea from Louisville to Owensboro, to the place of execution.
Rainey Bethea with Deputy Sheriffs Albert Riess and Lawrence Dishman as she leaves for the execution site.
Execution
On August 6, Kentucky Governor Albert Chandler signed an execution order for Bethea and scheduled her for dawn on August 14 in the Davis County courtyard. However, then, at the request of Sheriff Thompson, the governor moved the execution site to an empty piece of land near the county garage.
It was estimated that about 20,000 people gathered to watch the execution, thousands came from another city.
Bethea left the prison at 05-21 and went to the scaffold. In two minutes he was at the base of the scaffold. Taking off his shoes, he put on a new pair of socks, went up the steps and stood on the large hatch as directed. He didn't say the last word to the waiting crowd. The officers put on a black hood and fastened three large belts around his ankles, thighs, arms and chest.
Rainey Bethea, 25, walks up the steps of the gallows.
The officers put a black hood over Rainey Bethea's head.
Sheriff Florence Thompson put the noose around Bethea's neck.
Spectators try to see Rainey Bethea hanging in Owensboro, Kentucky on August 14, 1936.
Vendors trade briskly as the crowd gathers before dawn - time of execution of the convicted person.
Sheriff Florence Thompson put the noose around Bethea's neck, straightened it, and at her signal a button was pressed.
Bethea fell into a 2.5-meter hatch, his neck instantly snapped.
After about 14 minutes, two doctors pronounced death. After the noose was removed, Bethea's body was taken to Andrew and Wheatley's funeral home. Kaaznenny wanted his body to be sent to his sister in South Carolina, but he was buried in a common beggar's grave at Rosehill Cemetery in Elmwood in Owensboro.
Many newspapers, which spent significant sums of money covering the first execution publicly performed by a woman, were disappointed and several journalists took the liberty of inaccurate coverage of the event, calling it a "Roman holiday." Some of them mistakenly reported that the crowd threw themselves on the gallows and demanded souvenirs, and at least one newspaper falsely reported that Sheriff Thompson had passed out at the base of the scaffold.
Bethea was the last to be publicly hanged in the United States. Since then, the execution process has changed dramatically, from a public spectacle to grim and tightly controlled procedures deep in prisons.