The Last Public Execution in America

by Perry T. Ryan

---

CHAPTER 7

THE SEARCH FOR RAINEY BETHEA

After the body was removed by the coroner, at about noon, on Sunday, June 7, 1936, Chief Thornberry locked the bedroom to keep anyone else from entering it and to preserve the fingerprints until he could get in touch with Officer William Vogel, Owensboro's fingerprint expert, who was on a vacation visit to St. Louis. Word was dispatched to Vogel that his assistance was needed immediately, while the officers who remained in Owensboro began to interrogate the neighbors of the victim.

The police asked Robert Richardson to recount how he had discovered the body. They talked to the Wellses and the Smiths, both of whom lived downstairs, as well as the residents of the house nextdoor, the Thomas L. McSwine family and the Oscar Miller family.

Tom McSwine and his wife occupied an upper apartment in the adjoining house. After talking with the McSwines, the police concluded that the strangulation occurred at about 2:30 a.m. The McSwines' bedroom windows faced those of Mrs. Edwards and all of them had been raised as a result of the the intense heat on that June evening. Mrs. McSwine stated that she had been awakened in the night by what she thought was the sound of a baby crying. Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Miller, who also had a second-floor apartment, told the police of hearing a muffled cry.

Tom McSwine remembered that he had found a man prowling between his home and the Wells house several nights before, but when he approached him, the unidentified man ran away. As for Saturday night, McSwine told them that he was awakened by the howl of his German police dog during the night. A few minutes later, he heard a gurgling scream. After that everything was quiet until he heard an automobile, which had been parked on Fifth Street, drive away.

Mrs. Wells stated that she had awakened from her sleep briefly, believing that she had heard a baby cry during the night. There were no children in the home, but Mrs. Wells, explained that she was not troubled by the cry because, only a few days before, the daughter-in-law and granddaughter of Mrs. Edwards had been visiting her, and so Mrs. Wells unwittingly attributed the cry to the baby.

As the police talked with the neighbors, Aria Zinsz, Mrs. Edwards' niece, who had been notified of the tragedy, arrived at the house. She checked through Mrs. Edwards' belongings to determine whether anything had been taken during the attack. Four diamond rings, a diamond brooch, a dress, and an undetermined amount of cash were missing. Chief Thornberry made a detailed record of these belongings which included a one-fourth karat diamond set in white gold, another fourth-karat set in white gold, a half-karat diamond set in white gold, and a three-fourth karat diamond set in yellow gold. The heart-shaped diamond brooch was set with a half-karat stone in the center. Mrs. Zinsz explained that Mrs. Edwards often wore the brooch at the neck of her nightgown.

The police decided to talk with Mr. and Mrs. Emmett Wells, who occupied the downstairs portion of the house. They were particularly interested in the names of the servants, and they were curious as to whether any of them might have a name which began with the letter "R."

The first clue as to the true identity of the assailant was made late Sunday afternoon, when police took the ring to several of the black residents of Owensboro, some of whom explained that they had seen the ring before. Some of those interviewed stated that the ring belonged to Rainey Bethea, a black man who already had a police record. The police immediately began to search for Bethea, but he could not be found. Sometimes, the police would stop at a place where he was reported to have been, only to be told that they had just missed him because he had just left. All night, the police looked through Owensboro. A guard was placed at Bethea's residence in anticipation that Bethea could be arrested upon his return home, but Bethea never appeared. The next day, the manhunt continued.

Pandemonium erupted in Owensboro when news of the murder broke. Doors and windows were locked, producing a suffocating effect in the hot weather. Many of the Owensboro women refused to go out after dark. In fact, some would venture out in the daytime only when it was absolutely necessary. Some of the men actually began wearing guns on their waists.

On June 8, Patrolman Vogel flew home from St. Louis and came to the police headquarters. He examined the fingerprints left in the victim's room and found some prints near the head of Mrs. Edwards' bed which seemed to be identifiable. He compared the prints with a known set of Bethea's fingerprints which were on file at the Police Headquarters. He found that they resembled those of the suspect, particularly the fourth finger of the left hand. Patrolman Vogel was suffering from tonsillitis on the evening of June 8, and was not able to make an immediate comparison of fingerprints. The prints found on the bed were mailed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Washington, D.C. for a more thorough comparison.

On Monday afternoon, June 8, at 4:00 p.m., funeral services were held for Mrs. Edwards at the Delbert J. Glenn Funeral Home. Presiding at the services was Rev. Alfonso F. Cagle, Mrs. Edwards' pastor. On Tuesday morning, June 9, her body was taken to Louisville for cremation.

The next day, on June 9, 1936, before the police had released the name of the suspect, the Owensboro Messenger published a strong editorial criticizing the police for not having captured the culprit, stating as follows:

ACTION DEMANDED

Owensboro's most heinous crime was committed early Sunday morning when an aged and prominent woman was brutally assaulted and murdered. In the quiet of the Sabbath morning when all the neighborhood was wrapped in slumber, some dastardly degenerate crept into the room, choked her to death, assaulted her criminally and left her bruised and bleeding body lying on the bed.

Owensboro citizens are demanding that those sworn to preserve the peace of the community and protect its people act and act quickly. Women and children of the city are living in a state of terror, fearing that the fiend, if uncaught, will commit other outrages in this city.

How long are the citizens of Owensboro going to stand for such crimes? Are these crimes committed because officials and jurors are lax in their sworn duty?

Not a stone should be left unturned that will help to point out the criminal. When and if he is caught, there should be no undue delay in his trial. Whether he is hanged or sent to the electric chair, there should be a minimum amount of delay. He was without mercy for his defenseless victim. Why should he be shown the slightest degree of mercy? The quicker such a beast is destroyed the better it will be for Daviess County.

The police particularly resented this attack, simply because they believed that they were doing their best, working day and night, to apprehend Mrs. Edwards' attacker. The police wanted to see the assailant captured as much as anyone else.

The police continued to work throughout the town. They visited everyone whose name had been given to them.

Chief of Police Thornberry once said, "We were prepared to keep an all-night vigil. No one thought of sleep or relaxation."

Hours passed. At police headquarters, Chief of Detectives Vollman and Patrolman Bristow entered Chief Thornberry's office with a middle-aged man whom they suspected had committed the crime. They told him to sit in a chair opposite the chief of police. The police never released his name or explained why this particular man was a suspect. The suspect was frightened because he knew how the public feeling had focused upon Mrs. Edwards' murderer. The suspect vehemently denied any knowledge of the ring which had been found in Mrs. Edwards' room. He denied any connection with the burglary, rape, and murder. Although the police interrogated him intensely, they were left fruitless. The suspect was led to a holdover cell and locked up.

In only a few hours, police officers again entered Chief Thornberry's office. This time, they had in their custody another suspect. Like the other suspect, the man knew how the public was outraged by Mrs. Edwards' murder. At the end of their questioning, the man, like the previous suspect, had admitted nothing, but Chief Thornberry nonetheless ordered the officers to lock him up.

On Tuesday, June 9, 1936, an article appeared in the Owensboro Inquirer, which stated that Rainey Bethea was the prime suspect in the crime and that he had apparently eluded the police. The article stated that he was last seen shortly before 11:00 a.m. on Monday, when police visited a house where he reportedly had spent the night. The newspaper article ultimately helped locate Bethea.

Two days passed, and the police had been unable to secure any incriminating evidence against the two suspects they had been holding.

In their cells, the two suspects stuck to their stories of knowing nothing about the crime, and the Owensboro Police continued their investigation. The police learned that Rainey Bethea had been employed at the Wells home a few years earlier. He had been in the Daviess County Jail on minor charges several times. In fact, their records showed that from January 6, 1936, until April 18, he had occupied a jail cell, serving out an unpaid $100 fine imposed in police court for being drunk and disorderly.

The officers went to Bethea's room, but he was away from home. They visited the places he was known to frequent. They scoured the town for him. Their efforts to locate him were futile.

The case was being given widespread publicity and photographs of the celluloid ring had been carried in the local newspapers. And it remained for a twelve-year-old boy, Robert Rutherford, to tell them to whom the ring belonged. Bethea had worked for the boy's parents and stayed with them in the basement of their home, located at the corner of Fourth and Lewis Streets in Owensboro, a distance of only two blocks from the scene of the crime.

The young Rutherford made the statement that he had seen the ring several times. When interviewed, Robert Rutherford told the police that the ring belonged to Rainey Bethea, a black man who had worked for his parents. The officers were already on the lookout for Rainey Bethea, whom the boy as well as several black citizens had named as owner of the celluloid ring. He was the most likely suspect. Not only had Rainey Bethea been one of the servants employed by the Rutherfords, but he had also worked for Mr. and Mrs. Tom Wells, and, quite interestingly, for Mrs. Edwards.

Bethea was nowhere to be found. He had not been seen since Sunday at noon.

The town was combed. The police even searched the box cars on railroad sidings near Owensboro, but there was no trace of Bethea.

The police continued to find evidence which incriminated Bethea. The initialed ring was still somewhat of a puzzle. The homemade "R" closely resembled a "B." The police, cautious of blaming the wrong man, worried that the ring depicted an entirely different letter. On the other hand, they were aware that Rainey Bethea might have chosen the initial for his first, rather than his last name.

Concluding that Bethea was the murderer, the police dispatched descriptions of Bethea to police authorities and all peace officers in surrounding cities and towns. The two suspects who had been jailed for questioning were released and absolved of any connection with the crime.

On Wednesday, June 10, 1936, Chief R. P. Thornberry believed he had sufficient evidence to charge Bethea with murdering Mrs. Edwards. A warrant for Bethea's arrest would be helpful because any police officer who sighted him could then arrest him. Filing a complaint and obtaining a warrant of arrest required evidence--substantial evidence which would be sufficient to proceed to a trial. Chief Thornberry signed a criminal complaint to be filed with the Owensboro Police Court.

A brief understanding of the division of powers in the Kentucky criminal courts is relevant here. In 1936, the county attorney was the prosecutor in quarterly court, while the city attorney was the prosecutor in the city police court. Both of these courts were courts of inferior jurisdiction, and could only hear misdemeanor offenses. Neither the county attorney nor the city attorney prosecuted felonies, the more serious charges. Felony prosecutions were heard in circuit court and a third-level prosecutor, the Commonwealth's Attorney, was in charge of these proceedings. The Commonwealth's Attorney in the Sixth Judicial District, which encompassed Daviess County, was Herman A. Birkhead.

From a procedural standpoint, under state law, when a criminal complaint was filed charging a suspect with committing a felony within the city limits, the complaint was initially filed in the city police court. The proceedings would remain in the city police court until the suspect was found, arrested, and brought before the city police judge for an examining trial. At the examining trial, the city police judge could decide to do only two things. First, he could determine that there was probable cause to detain the defendant and waive the case to the grand jury of the circuit court, or, otherwise, he could decide that the evidence against the defendant was insufficient and order that the defendant be released. If the judge determined that the case should be waived to the grand jury, the file was transferred from the city police court to the circuit court for further proceedings.

The City Attorney determined that there was sufficient evidence to file the complaint against Bethea, so he drafted the complaint, which stated as follows:

AFFIDAVIT

This affiant R. P. Thornberry states that he has reasonable grounds for believing that Rainey Bethea has committed the crime of wilful murder. That said crime was committed in manner and form as follows: That, in Daviess County, Kentucky, on or about the 7 day of June, 1936, that said Rainey Bethea did unlawfully, maliciously & feloniously kill, slay, and murder Mrs. Lishia R. Edwards by striking, beating, and choking her with his hands, fists and feet, upon her body, arms, limbs and person from which striking beating and choking the said Lischia R. Edwards did then and there die against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

/S/ R. P. Thornberry

 

Subscribed and sworn to before me by R. P. Thornberry the 10th day of June, 1936.

/S/ F. A. Roby, P.J.O.

[Police Judge of Owensboro]

After witnessing Chief Thornberry's signature, Judge Forest A. Roby reviewed the complaint and, finding probable cause to issue a warrant of arrest, immediately issued a warrant, which stated as follows:

The Commonwealth of Kentucky

To any Sheriff, marshal, Constable, Coroner, Jailer or Policeman of Kentucky, Greeting:

It appearing that there are reasonable grounds for believing that Rainey Bethea has committed the crime of wilful murder in the County of Daviess, you are therefore commanded forthwith to arrest Rainey Bethea and bring him before me, Judge of Owensboro Police Court, Daviess County, to be dealt with according to law.

Given under my hand the 10th day of June, 1936.

 

/S/ F. A. Roby, P.J.O.

[Police Judge of Owensboro]

The court further ordered Russell P. Thornberry, William Vogel, and Will Vollman to appear as witnesses on behalf of the Commonwealth at the examining trial after Bethea was found and arrested.

A great deal had taken place since early Wednesday morning, and practically everyone in Owensboro knew that the police suspected Bethea of the crime.

Owensboro citizens were at first alarmed by the attack, but their fear turned into hatred. Had Rainey Bethea fallen into the wrong hands, it is quite possible that he would have been severely beaten, if not tortured, before being lynched. In fact, various leaders in the black community of Owensboro offered to lynch Rainey Bethea, simply because they felt victimized by Bethea who had brought about unjustified contempt of the blacks and had injured the otherwise amiable relationship which the blacks had enjoyed with the whites of Owensboro.

Burt "Red" Figgins, an employee of the River Sand and Gravel Company, was walking along the river bank, about a block and a half west of the company, dragging a wire line when he saw Bethea lying under some bushes on the river bank, well hidden. Figgins got within a foot of Bethea and asked him what he was doing. Bethea said that he was "cooling off." Figgins thought this was an odd thing to say since it was not really a very cool place. Figgins left Bethea there and then asked his supervisor, Will Faith, to contact the police. When Figgins returned to the hill, he noticed that Bethea had moved behind Koll's Grocery and was sitting under a locust bush. When Bethea saw Will Faith, he walked behind Koll's Grocery into an alley. Figgins followed him to Wright's Machine Shop and then to Lewis Street, where Bethea concealed himself behind some cars. Figgins found a policeman inside a drugstore west of Lewis Street, and the officer began to look for Bethea. As a result of Faith's telephone call to the police, Detective Vollman, Patrolmen Jack Long and Shirley Embry were dispatched to the scene, but no one could find Bethea.

On the same Wednesday afternoon, only two blocks from the courthouse, John Waltrip, a local painter, was painting an apartment owned by Henry B. Gordon, located at 112 Allen Street. Waltrip walked toward the river for a few minutes for a short break. While there, he noticed a man whom he believed was Bethea walk by near the corner of Daviess and First Streets. Waltrip knew from the recent publicity that Bethea was wanted by the local police for the murder of Lischia Edwards. He followed Bethea to Riverview Park. Bethea told Waltrip, "The law is after me." He had a large knife in his hand at the time. Waltrip told him that a good place to hide would be on the river bank.

Waltrip was first worried how he would notify the police of the sighting without losing track of Bethea. Fortunately, Waltrip found George "Beany" Glahn, and asked Glahn to follow the man while he contacted the police. Glahn agreed. Then, as Bethea moved, Glahn followed him.

Shortly before 2:00 p.m., John Waltrip returned to the house where he had been working, telephoned the Owensboro Police Department, and reported that he thought he had spotted Bethea in the area of Second and Bolvar Streets. So notified, Patrolmen Dayton Hicks and Frate Austin were dispatched to the area. They hurried through the Owensboro business district, past the courthouse square, and then turned one block north toward the river. A newspaper reporter arrived at the scene simultaneously with Patrolmen Hicks and Austin. Chief Detective William Vollman and Patrolmen Jack Long and Shirley Embry, other police officers who had previously searched the area, arrived later.

There was no black man in sight when they first arrived. Soon, Officer Vollman noticed Bethea near the rear of Koll's Grocery. Patrolman Jack Long shouted, "Here he is." When Bethea realized he was being followed, he ran toward the river bank, where he tried to board a barge that was moored to the bank. Although he did not succeed in boarding the barge, Bethea hid under some willow trees near the edge of the water, about a block from the grocery, where he remained, cornered. He threw his knife into the river.

Believing they had found the suspect, the officers drew their revolvers and stood on the embankment, looking down at Bethea. "Come here, boy," Officer Hicks called to him. Bethea looked up at them, seeing their weapons. Bethea, intoxicated, crawled from among the willow trees and began the steep ascent, and the police officers wondered if this was really Bethea. At 2:05 p.m., he was placed under arrest. He was driven to police headquarters in the Owensboro Inquirer reporter's car.

Within one minute, the third suspect in the case was seated before Chief Thornberry, who addressed him as Rainey Bethea. Bethea denied his identity. "I'm James Smith," he said.

The police, fearing a mob demonstration, also told people who inquired that the man whom they had just arrested was named Smith.

But Bethea maintained that the officers had mistaken his identity. He claimed that he knew nothing about the murder of Mrs. Edwards; that he never had been employed at the Wells home; that he never had lived in the servants' cottage, over which the murderer had climbed on the night of the crime; that he owned no celluloid ring, broken or otherwise; and that he was James Smith. He completely denied any connection to the crime whatever.

He declared that he was twenty-two years old, and that he lived in Greenville. He also said that he had been staying near the river for the past two days. The experienced Chief Thornberry was not to be deceived. He knew that the man was Rainey Bethea. Shortly afterward, Deputy Jailer Arthur Bollinger positively identified Bethea. Bethea bore a scar on the left side of his head, which was believed to have been caused by a beating he received from officers when he protested a previous arrest. This was the chief identifying mark until Bollinger was called, although various other officers believed that this was indeed Bethea.

Ironically, when Bethea was brought in, he had in his pocket a clipping of the feature article published in the joint Sunday Edition of the Owensboro Messenger and Inquirer, on the day of Mrs. Edwards' death had discussed Patrolman Vogel and the number of convictions which had been secured in Daviess County through fingerprint identification. The only other items in his possession at the time of arrest were small-change coins, found in a pocket.

Bethea was taken to a part of the police headquarters to a cell for holding. Another inmate at the jail, Guy Harrington, said that he saw Bethea take something out of his mouth and flush it down the commode. Thinking it might have been part of the jewelry stolen during Mrs. Edwards' attack, the police had the entire plumbing from the cell, including the sink, taken apart, but found nothing.

The police also searched the area of the barge, where Bethea had been found. Again, they found nothing.