A crowd of over 10,000 gathered in Owensboro, Kentucky on this day to watch the last ever public hanging in the United States. Reporters from around the country traveled to cover the event.
22-year-old Rainey Bethea, a young black man, had been found guilty of raping a wealthy white widow, 70-year-old Lischia Edwards. A neighbor found Mrs. Edwards dead on her bed, the coroner later declaring that she had been strangled and raped the previous night.
Bethea had been employed at the apartment building where Mrs. Edwards lived. He became the prime suspect when a cheap ring belonging to him was found in the room.
After being arrested Bethea confessed to the crimes and admitted stealing jewellery belonging to Mrs. Edwards.
Under Kentucky state law at the time, conviction for robbery and murder would result in execution at the state penitentiary, but the prosecution, wanting the execution to take place at Owensboro.
Bethea pleaded guilty. The prosecution still presented the facts to the jury as they would need to decide the sentence.
The judge instructed the jury that their only job was to decide whether Bethea should get between 10 to 20 years in prison or the death sentence.
It took them less than five minutes to decide that he should be hanged.
Many newspapers denounced the hanging, saying that “the crowds enjoyed it too much.” Two years later the state of Kentucky abolished public executions.
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