Rainey Bethea in custody. Public domain.

The last official public execution in the US was in 1936, when Rainey Bethea, a young black man (naturally), who was just 5’3″, was hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky, before a crowd of 20,000 people.

The sheriff of the county, who was charged with killing Bethea,  was a woman named Florence Thompson. Florence was concerned that the planned site for the execution, the landscaping on the front lawn of the courthouse, would be marred by the scaffolding and the large crowd, so it was moved to a lot in front of........

© CounterPunch