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Last public execution in American photo....
Last public execution in American photo....
Item # 666966
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August 14, 1936
THE DETROIT NEWS, August 14, 1936
* Rainey Bethea's famous hanging photo
* Last public execution in America
The front page has a infamous photo of the last public execution in the United States. This photo measures 10 x 5 1/2 inches and has the heading: "Death Makes a Holiday in Kentucky and Wirephoto Catches the Gruesome Carnival" with brief text underneath. This photo was published on the same day of the execution in this Detroit newspaper, rare as such.
Complete with 40 pages, rag edition in nice condition.
wikipedia notes: Rainey Bethea was the last person publicly executed in the United States. Bethea, who confessed to the rape and murder of a 70-year-old woman named Lischia Edwards, was convicted of her rape and publicly hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky. Mistakes in performing the hanging, and the surrounding media circus, contributed to the end of public executions in the United States.
