The Last Public Execution in America

by Perry T. Ryan

---

CHAPTER 9

THE SPECIAL PROCEEDINGS FOR THE INDICTMENT

Judge George S. Wilson was the itinerant circuit judge of the Sixth Judicial District, which encompassed Daviess, Hancock, McClean, and Ohio Counties. Because the judge could not preside in each of these courts at the same time, the judge moved from county to county, holding court in segments of time known as terms. The terms of court were published so that lawyers knew when the courts were in session. When Bethea committed his crime, the term of the Daviess Circuit Court had begun on April 20 and lasted twelve days. Largely due to the public outrage at what was perceived by many citizens as one of the most heinous crimes in Daviess County history, Judge Wilson believed that a Special Term should be ordered, which he was empowered to do in extraordinary circumstances. He ordered that a special session of the grand jury be convened on June 22. For such an order to be lawful, Kentucky law required that a notice of the special term be posted in the courthouse. The law also provided that a special term could not begin until at least ten days after the notice was given, making the earliest possible date for a grand jury to convene June 22. The notice stated as follows:

NOTICE

OF

SPECIAL TERM

OF

DAVIESS CIRCUIT COURT

Notice is hereby given that owing to the congested condition of the Criminal Docket of the Daviess Circuit Court as that it cannot be disposed of by the Court at its Regular Terms, an emergency exists, therefore, the Daviess Circuit Court of Daviess County, Kentucky, will be convened in Special Session on Monday, June 22, 1936, at 9 o'clock A.M., in the Daviess County Circuit Court Room at which Special term of Court a Grand Jury will be empaneled to investigate the prosecution of Commonwealth of Kentucky vs. Rainey (or Railey) Bethea on charge of rape and on the charge of Murder now pending, and said Grand Jury so empaneled to return an indictment or indictments in its discretion, against said Bethea.

The undersigned Judge of the Daviess Circuit Court will draw a Grand Jury which will be entered upon the Order Book by the Clerk of the Daviess Circuit Court for said Special Term of Court, the names thereof after so drawn, will be delivered to the Sheriff of Daviess County and said sheriff will summon said Grand Jurors to appear at said time and place, that is nine o'clock A.M., Monday, June 22, 1936.

Notice is hereby further given that at said Special Term, a Petit Jury shall be summoned for the purpose of trying the prosecution which may be charged in any indictment or indictments against the said Rainey (or Railey) Bethea, that is, the case or cases of Commonwealth of Kentucky vs. said Bethea; said Special Term beginning at said time, that is 9 o'clock A.M., Monday, June 22, 1936, shall continue for fourteen juridical days ending Saturday, July 4, 1936.

Witness my hand as Judge of the Daviess Circuit Court, this June 11, 1936.

 

/S/ George S. Wilson

Judge, Daviess Circuit Court

 

The notice was served on the same day it was signed by the judge, when Deputy Sheriff Richard McDaniel posted one copy of it on the north door of the courthouse and another copy of it on a billboard located in the hallway of the courthouse near the county court clerk's office.

Later, on the same day in Louisville, Rainey Bethea repudiated his confession. His explanation was, "I must have been drunk." He claimed, "I never worked for Mrs. Edwards. I didn't own the ring they found in her home. I didn't attack or kill her and I didn't know she was dead."

At about 9:00 p.m., on Friday, June 12, 1936, while in the Jefferson County Jail, Bethea told Captain Wallace E. Crady, the Captain of the Guards at the jail, that he wanted to tell him something. Captain Crady went to his cell. The statement made at this juncture was even more incriminating than before because it corroborated Bethea's confession. Bethea told him that he wanted to tell him where the jewelry was that he had stolen. Sealing his fate, he stated that the rings and the jewelry were in a barn across the alley next to where the lady was killed. Bethea told him that the jewelry consisted of rings, bracelets, a brooch, and some other jewelry. He stated that the dress was hidden behind a buggy top and that the jewelry was in the buggy top. During this confession, Bethea implicated a man whom he referred to as "Willie Johnson," who came to Owensboro from Tennessee.

Within five minutes, Captain Crady telephoned the Owensboro Police Department. The call was received by Warner Cecil, a desk sergeant.

Responding to Captain Crady's telephone call, Owensboro Officer Harry O. Whittinghill and Officer William Vollman went to the barn. They first found two strings of pearl beads and a string of amber beads in a small box located in the garage in the rear of the house. They also found the brooch and the dress. Officer Vollman found the victim's dress alongside a towel and an old coat covering it behind a buggy top. They returned to police headquarters.

Later that evening, not having found all of the stolen articles, Captain W. P. Morris, the Night Captain of the Owensboro Police Department, Officer Vollman, and Officer Whittinghill, returned to the barn to search for more jewelry. Captain Morris found five rings lying loose together, covered with hay. Officer Vollman picked up some of the hay, and Captain Morris exclaimed, "Wait a minute, you have got the rings right there." The jewelry was taken to police headquarters, where it remained until Bethea's trial.

When Bethea revealed the location of the stolen jewelry, he pounded the nail that sealed his own coffin, for, at that point, the case against him was built to a degree of certainty that would ensure his conviction at trial, in the event that he decided to plead not guilty.

Based upon Bethea's accusation, the police arrested a black man, Bill Mitchell, on Saturday, June 13, on vagrancy charges. He was jailed pending further questioning and investigation. Mitchell, who lived on an alley near the Ken-Rad (Kentucky Radio) plant, told the police that Bethea had come to his home early on Sunday morning and had asked him to leave so the two could get drunk together. He denied any connection in the Edwards attack. However, officials in Owensboro expressed doubt that Mitchell was an accomplice of Bethea. There was only one set of footprints on the roof of the house where Mrs. Edwards was found dead. It had been rumored that Bethea and Mitchell had been dating the same woman and that Bethea might try to shift part of the blame to Mitchell, as a result of jealousy. Mitchell flatly denied Bethea's accusations.

Bethea was again interviewed by a reporter from the Messenger-Inquirer on Saturday, June 13, at which time he provided yet another confession. He told the reporter that he and "Willie Johnson" had gone on a "spree" from the "middletown section." He stated that they visited two liquor dispensaries and later that night purchased some moonshine. Bethea told him that they were out of money and that he suggested entering the apartment of Mrs. Edwards, whom he said was nearly deaf.

Bethea stated that he went to the rear of the home, where he got a ladder and climbed upon the roof over the kitchen door and then pulled his accomplice up. He stated that they took off their shoes and walked across the roof to a window leading into Mrs. Edwards' apartment. They found that the screen to the window was loose, so he shoved it back and crawled through and his accomplice followed him. Bethea stated that when they started into the front room, his accomplice brushed against the victim's bed. Going into the front room, where Mrs. Edwards kept her jewelry, Bethea picked up the rings, went back through Mrs. Edwards' rooms, and crawled out of the window.

He took the jewelry to a barn in the rear of the home of Joseph Lyddane, who lived in a house only a few feet from where Mrs. Edwards was attacked, where he hid the jewelry in some cans and covered them up with grass sacks in an old buggy top.

Bethea denied attacking Mrs. Edwards, although he had already admitted attacking her and later repudiated the confession.

Bethea told the reporter that he was afraid that he would be taken by a lynch mob and that was why he was hoping that the law would take its course.

Guards in the jail told the reporter that Bethea had been pretending to be insane since he had arrived in Louisville on Wednesday. Just before the interview ended, Bethea whispered to J. R. Murphy, a guard at the jail, "The nigger in the next cell has got a gun, and he has threatened to get me."

Bethea also told the reporter that he did not want to hang for his crimes but that he would be willing to die in the electric chair, "without a trial."

Back in Owensboro, Sheriff Florence Thompson announced that she was prepared to fulfill the duties of her office and that she would carry out the sentence if Bethea were sentenced to be hanged in Owensboro. Sheriff Thompson stated that she had told County Attorney Sidney B. Neal and Commonwealth's Attorney Herman Birkhead that she did not want her sex to be considered in determining the charges upon which Bethea would be tried. "I'm ready to do my duty," she bravely asserted.

On Saturday, June 13, 1936, Circuit Judge George Wilson entered another order, this time specifying the grand jurors to be summoned for the special term. The judge drew the names from a list of potential jurors which was maintained by the court clerk. The order entered by the judge stated as follows:

STATE OF KENTUCKY

DAVIESS CIRCUIT COURT

 

JUNE 13, 1936

 

It appearing to the Court and the Judge thereof that Notice has heretofore been posted for a Special Criminal Term of the Daviess Circuit Court to be held June 22, 1936, in the Daviess County Court House for the purpose of empaneling a Grand Jury to investigate the charges of Murder and Rape pending against Rainey Bethea and for summoning a Petit Jury for the trial of any indictment or indictments which may be returned against the said Bethea and it further appearing to the Court that the next Regular Session of the Daviess Circuit Court is a Civil Term and no Grand Jury was drawn for said Court and there is none now in the hands of the Clerk of the Court, the Judge of the said Daviess Circuit Court has this day drawn from the Jury Wheel, the following 24 names to be summoned by the Sheriff to appear at nine o'clock A.M. on said June 22, 1936 in the Daviess Circuit Court Room from whom a Grand Jury will be selected, sworn and empaneled for the purposes aforesaid, viz:

1. W. R. Jones, County

2. B. S. Hemmingway, Co.

3. John M. Rudy, Co

4. W. F. Mafendorfer, City

5. H. D. Jones, Co.

6. J. W. Kerns, Co.*

7. Hugh Bailey, City

8. Ed Skillman, City

9. B. A. Camp, Co.

10. Ray Jones, City

11. W. H. Taylor, Co.*

12. Andy Donovan, Co.

13. A. L. Waite, Co.

14. W. H. Bradley, Co.

15. W. M. Lewis, Co.

16. W. J. Dawson, Co.

17. W. M. Salmon, Co.

18. W. J. Mitchell, Co.

19. W. B. Johnson, Co.

20. E. L. Burns, Co.

21. L. E. Hoskins, City

22. Richard Calloway, Co.

23. Louis Elliott, City

24. H. O. Whittinghill, City

/S/ George S. Wilson, Judge

* Indicates the name was misspelled in the original order.

A grand jury does not make determinations of guilt or innocence but merely determines whether sufficient evidence exists to hold a person over for trial. If it agrees that the evidence is sufficient, it will return "a true bill" of indictment against the suspect, charging him with a crime.

It is interesting to note that the penalty of hanging was only available for the offense of rape. Persons convicted of robbery or murder, for example, if given a death sentence, were to be electrocuted in the privacy of the state penitentiary at Eddyville. Although Bethea had been initially charged with the single crime of murder, the chief prosecutor made the extraordinary decision to charge him only with rape.

Were Bethea convicted of both of the charges and given a death sentence, a legal question might arise as to whether he should be hanged or electrocuted, since hanging was only available for the crime of rape and electrocution was imposed for murder. The Commonwealth's Attorney, Herman Birkhead, elected to seek an indictment against Bethea from the grand jury only on the charge of rape, to circumvent the legal question as to which method of implementing the punishment would be used.