The Last Public Execution in America
by Perry T. Ryan
CHAPTER 6
THE DISCOVERY OF THE CRIME
At 11:00 a.m., on Sunday, June 7, 1936, members of the Thomas B.
Smith family noticed that Mrs. Edwards had not been seen that
morning. Mrs. Smith thought it odd that she had not even heard her
moving about in her room. Since it was eleven o'clock, Tom Smith
thought she might be ill.
The Smiths both walked upstairs to the door of Mrs. Edwards'
apartment. After knocking sharply on the door, they called to her
several times, but there was no response. Mrs. Smith attempted to
open the door, but turning the knob was useless because it was locked
from the inside with a skeleton key. Tom tried to push the key from
the hole. Worried that Mrs. Edwards might need help, he decided to
ask Robert Richardson, a neighbor who lived across the street, to
assist him.
Shortly, Tom returned with Richardson. First, Richardson tried to
knock the key out of the hole from the outside of the door, as Tom
had tried earlier. He succeeded in knocking the key out of its
keyhole, but another skeleton key would not turn the lock.
Frustrated, they decided to force the door open, but later, Tom
walked down to the covered porch that led to the garage and obtained
a ladder. Returning to the bedroom, he adjusted it in front of door.
Richardson climbed it and then looked through the transom into the
room.
From there, he saw Mrs. Edwards lying on the bed, so he forced his
body through the narrow transom. A few moments later, he had worked
his way through the opening, dropped to the floor below, turned
around, and unlocked the door. At about 11:15, Tom walked into the
bedroom, and the two of them stood there staring at the body which
lay at an angle across the bed. They noticed bruises on her eyes and
marks on her throat, as well as the disorderly condition of the bed.
One leg was hanging over the bed, from the knee down, while the other
remained on the bed. The covers of the bed, from the mattress, had
been pulled up to cover the body, and the sheets were dirty and
appeared to have been handled by dirty hands.
Lischia Rarick Edwards was dead.
Central Presbyterian Church was located at the corner of Fifth and
St. Ann Streets in Owensboro. Tom Smith knew that Mrs. Edwards'
niece, Aria Zinsz, and Aria's husband, Frank, attended services there
regularly. Rev. Dr. Thomas J. Graham, a visiting minister from
Louisville, was delivering the morning sermon, which began at 11:00
a.m. After spending only about one minute in Mrs. Edwards' room, Tom
hurried to the Central Presbyterian Church, where he found Frank
Zinsz.
Remembering that Dr. George Barr attended the Settle Memorial
United Methodist Church, located only about two blocks away, someone
rushed to the church to get Dr. Barr, a physician who had practiced
in Owensboro for thirty-nine years. Someone quietly walked inside the
sanctuary and spoke with Dr. Barr, while those attending the service
looked on. Dr. Barr immediately left the church and hurried to the
residence, where he examined Mrs. Edwards.
Certain that he could not help Mrs. Edwards, Dr. Barr told the
others present to summon Delbert Glenn, the Daviess County Coroner,
and to stay out of the room. Interestingly, Coroner Glenn attended
Settle Memorial, the same church as Dr. Barr. At about 11:45 a.m.,
someone reverently walked into the church, again, this time to find
Coroner Glenn. The parishioners, silently watching the events from
their pews, grew curious knowing that something terrible had
happened.
Upon arriving at Mrs. Edwards' residence, Coroner Glenn made a
cursory examination by lifting the covers off of the body. Her pink
gown was still raised above her waist, revealing her naked body from
the waist down. Blood covered the sheets around her pelvis. It was
obvious that the seventy-year-old widow had been brutally raped
before she was murdered. Coroner Glenn told the Wellses to telephone
the Owensboro Police. Chief of Detectives Vollman and Patrolman
Raleigh Bristow arrived shortly afterward. In a few minutes,
Commonwealth's Attorney Herman A. Birkhead and Owensboro Chief of
Police R. P. Thornberry were at the scene of the crime. Except for
the bed itself, they found the bedroom in almost perfect order. The
screen of the window had been removed. Robert Richardson noticed
tracks on the tin roof outside the window and footprints on a cloth
spread which covered a sewing machine which sat directly beneath the
window. The roof was dirty with soot, and Bethea's tracks were
everywhere. Handprints were also located on the building.
Coroner Glenn made the most significant evidentiary discovery.
Lying on the kitchen cabinet, he found a black celluloid ring which
bore an Old English letter. The ring was located toward the east side
of the sewing machine, practically butted against it. No one knew to
whom the ring belonged, and no one was sure whether the letter on the
ring was an "R" or a "B."
The attacker had moved silently. The burglary, the beating, the
rape, and the murder would have caused anyone to shudder.
Coroner Glenn telephoned Henry Holinde, a young man who
worked for him, and Holinde drove a hearse to the residence to remove
Mrs. Edwards' body to the Glenn Funeral Home, which was located at
the corner of Fourth and Allen Streets. The body remained there
pending the funeral arrangements. Coroner Delbert Glenn listed
"choked with hand--homicide" as the primary cause of Mrs. Edwards'
death, but it would appear that blood loss and trauma might have been
contributory causes.