The Last Public Execution in America

by Perry T. Ryan

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CHAPTER 24

FINAL PREPARATIONS FOR THE HANGING

Arthur L. Hash again wrote Florence:

P.O. Box 502

Louisville, Ky.

August 11th, 36.

 

Mrs. Florence Thompson,

Sheriff Daviess County.

Owensboro, Kentucky.

 

Dear Mrs. Thompson:-

I will be in your Office thursday [sic] Aug. 13th, "Sure," and if for any cause I am not there at noon, which is my intention now, I will be there positively at eight O'clock P.M. you will please make no other preparations, and as before requesting you, let no one see this letter.

Bethea's Attorneys made a statement to the Press this after-noon [sic], that they were through with the Case, I am,

Your friend,

/S/ A. L. Hash

As she had promised Hash, Sheriff Thompson remained mute as to the decision she had made about who would pull the trap door at the hanging. On August 13, during a newspaper interview, she said, "No one knows the decision I have reached regarding the execution of Rainey Bethea."

Sheriff Thompson appointed Dr. W. L. Tyler and Dr. B. H. Sigler to attend the execution and to examine Bethea's body afterward. The body would be released to the Agnew & Wheatley Funeral Home.

Three reporters from New York arrived by airplane and several others by train and cars.

Chief of Police Russell P. Thornberry announced that he would consult with Mayor Fred Weir concerning the closing of all liquor houses at 1:00 a.m. on Friday. He also instructed all police officers to arrest every intoxicated person found on the street on Thursday night and Friday morning.

No one was permitted to drive automobiles within the vicinity of the hanging.

On Thursday night prior to his hanging, while waiting to die in the Jefferson County Jail, 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.

On Thursday afternoon, Capt. Jesse Stone of the Kentucky State Police announced that all cameras found at the hanging would be "smashed." Reporters immediately tried to contact Governor Chandler to rescind the order, and Chandler overruled the state police captain. Several years later, remembering the incident, Chandler said, "I didn't care for ‘em takin' pictures of it."

Sheriff Thompson deputized twelve men to help keep order during the hanging. Gov. Chandler ordered twelve state troopers to attend. With five deputy sheriffs and twenty-two city police officers, a total of fifty-two law enforcement officers would be present to maintain order.

On the evening of August 13, Florence sent her children to the home of Elmer Dyer, a geologist and friend of the family, who lived at the corner of Eighth and Frederica Streets. There, the children would be safe from those who threatened them.

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.

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.

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.

Late on August 13, Deputy Lawrence Dishman and Albert Reisz 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.

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