On this day, Aug. 14, in 1936, Rainey Bethea was hanged in Owensboro, Ky., in the last public execution in the United States. Bethea was convicted and sentenced to death after he confessed to the rape and murder of a 70-year-old woman.
The hanging became a media circus because it was the first execution by a woman of a man. Florence Thompson became sheriff the day before the hanging when her husband, the sheriff, died suddenly.
An estimated 20,000 people showed up to glimpse a white, matronly sheriff put the rope around the neck of a black man. A Louisville police officer who volunteered to throw the trapdoor showed up drunk and froze, and another deputy had to lean into the lever.
Press reports described a horrific scene, and the negative publicity caused Kentucky lawmakers to move all executions behind prison walls.
— Scott McCabe
