Crowd gathers to view the hanging of Rainey Bethea after his conviction for murder in Kentucky. (12/14)

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Submitted to "Rainey Bethea: Story and Photos of the Last Person in the United States Who Was Executed Publicly in Kentucky on August 14, 1936"
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Crowd gathers to view the hanging of Rainey Bethea after his conviction for murder in Kentucky.
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Written by Benjamin Grayson

Former Bouquet seller now making a go with blogging and graphic designing. I love creating & composing history articles and lists.

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  1. A correction for this photo’s caption: Rainey Bethea was not executed for murder, but for rape. At the time, rapists in Kentucky could be sentenced to death by public hanging in the county where the offense occurred. Murder could be punished by electrocution “in private” at the Kentucky State Penitentiary. Bethea was tried and convicted only of rape, guaranteeing a public execution in Owensboro and avoiding a jurisdictional conflict between the two methods.

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