At precisely 5:21 a.m., 20 thousand men, women and children parted like the Red Sea to let the young man pass by.
Flanked by deputies and followed by a Catholic priest, Rainey Bethea passed through the crowd. He stopped at the base of the platform to pull on clean new socks.
Slowly, the 22 year old climbed the 13 steps and stepped out onto the large X. Pausing for a moment, he turned east and gazed at the sunrise. Silent, he declined to speak any last words.
A long black hood was pulled over his head and a heavy hemp noose, oiled so it would tighten faster, was slipped over his head. As the deputy leaned into the lever, the trap door fell eight feet.
The young man barely swayed when his neck broke. His cheek dropped to rest on his shoulder. Fourteen minutes later, he was pronounced dead.
Vendors continued to hawk food and beverages to the hungry crowd.
Wielding pen as sword and club, angry journalists turned their wrath on the town, painting the horror of an event that needed no embellishment. One wire service dispatch read:
"CHEERING, BOOING, EATING AND JOKING, 20,000 PERSONS WITNESSED THE PUBLIC EXECUTION OF RAINEY BETHEA, 22, FRIGHTENED NEGRO BOY, AT OWENSBORO, KY., YESTERDAY. IN CALLOUS, CARNIVAL SPIRIT, THE MOB CHARGED THE GALLOWS AFTER THE TRAP WAS SPRUNG, TORE THE EXECUTIONER'S HOOD FROM THE CORPSE, CHIPPING THE GALLOWS FOR SOUVENIRS.”
Mocking the sheriff for allowing the execution, yet declining to pull the lever himself, journalists cried out for an end to public hangings.
The issue was not Bethea’s innocence or guilt. The issue was the subhuman behavior and mob festivity that surrounded his death. Due to public outcry, hangings were immediately outlawed in the state of Kentucky. Other states hurried to follow suit.
Perry T. Ryan, a former Kentucky prosecutor, documented the hanging in a book entitled "The Last Public Execution in America."
Mr. Ryan, I beg to differ.
Enter, the Internet. The gold rush lives again and public hangings are again becoming commonplace. Except, now it is the frenzied mob wielding pen and voice as sword, club and noose.
"F***ing do it. Get on with it, get it round your neck."
Only after Kevin Whitrick, depressed, recently divorced father of twins, hung limply in front of his webcam were the voices subdued.
14 year old Megan Taylor Meier, found hanging in her closet. Cyber bullying. 13 year old Hannah Bond, found hanging from her bunk bed. Cyber cult.
And in November, 2008, Abraham Biggs, a 19 year old black boy egged on by chat members swallowed pills and laid down in front of his webcam. Only when police and EMT broke down the door, checked his pulse and quickly covered the webcam did chatters hurry to log off and erase their browser history.
Welcome to the Internet, where there are few rules and compassion cowers in the corner while freedom of speech reins supreme.
In a frenzy of forum posts, blog comments and electronic whispers, the bodies leaning on the lever are often invisible, the swing of the trapdoor silent and unseen.
Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me?
On the fringes of the crowd, vendors continue to hawk their wares.
Rest in peace
=======================
Note: Normally I come here to take a break, post random thoughts and read/comment on blogs. This is an example of my serious writing. If you like the writing style, let me know. If you prefer fluff, say that, too. lol. Thanks!
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Comments
In the case of Abraham Biggs, when police broke down the door, people in the chat were saying "OMFG, it's for real...." That strikes me as horribly sad.
HIghly rated and very well written.
Rated
By the way, write what you want. Your writing is of such high caliber that anything you write will be worth reading.
Gracielou, you can take my comment to Cartouche and just repeat. Your writing always moves me.
Lisa, thank you. You are one of the kindest, gracious and humbling people I've ever met.
Treating a subject like this in an essay you wanted to be judged on writing style is top drawer, Boomer. And you pulled it off like a champ.
I agree with everyone who has posted so far...but especially with Gracielou & Lisa.
Amazing how easy it is to talk about the beauty of a piece when the piece deals with such an ugly subject. As I said, you pulled it off.
Congratulations.
Frank... thank you. I am so humbled. I love your writing, which makes your comment that much more meaningful.
Dorinda... thank you for everything I don't need to say because you already know.
Horrified, but not surprised. From the day of the first public killing, people have cheered and jeered. Your writing is terrific, I'd like to see you take on the concept of why people do so. And I'd be willing to read a much longer piece than this if you did.
People become suicidal when their stress level exceeds their ability to cope. Another human being can push you to take your life... or take your hand and lead you to the help you need. Especially with kids, whose frontal lobes aren't yet developed and often lack critical coping skills. They are teetering. A push - either way - is often all it takes. Which way will someone push ... that's the real question.
Someday death is going to come into their life, maybe somebody near and dear to them will be, "fragile".. pushed over the edge by some creep then and only then will they understand and maybe they will wish for a little compassion, (and not get it) their own selves.
Thanks for the post.
Seattle... thank you. I know exactly what you mean!
What I love about this place is that we feel safe enough to try out all finds of things and find our way. I say explore all facets of your writing and you will find more about yourself from within than from any of us.
Will keep reading you, RB. Thanks for this.
Sandra... it was a childhood chant where I grew up. One I never agreed with. Words often cut deeper than anything else. I loved that point Procopius made, too, about the face to face connection. It's so true, and to me that's what makes cyber bullying even sadder. Many of these folks would not act the same way if they were in the boy's room looking in his eyes.
A woman stands on the edge of a bridge in rush hour traffic. The traffic snarl she causes prompts the travelers to exit their cars and encourage her to jump so they can get home before their dinners get cold. The world can be a cold heartless place.
I'm in no way making lite of the latest internet suicide craze. It's very disturbing to me, I only want to point out that it is not a new phenomena.
Thanks for this post Boomer.
I wish that parents would begin to pay attention to their kids experiences on the internet, and in school, but it's a wistful wish.
The internet is definitely a new world of "mean streets", where the worst of monsters and predators operate freely, with no identity, and in secret. The last public hanging demonstrated that even "decent" people can easily become a mob of hateful, unthinking monsters. But those people were at least present, and identifiable as individuals.
Unsupervised internet exposure has become the equivalent of dropping one's children off in the seedy part of any major city, and expecting them to fend for themselves every night.
Thanks for a well done expose of this problem.
zumalicious... thank you for the kind compliments. Love that phrase...mean street. A lot of the Internet is mean street.
Great post
(rated)
This was a most disturbing piece, RB. Disturbing because it shines a light on a side of technology that no-one really wants to look at. Still, a very coherent and cogent piece of work.
Thumbed.
The Internet is here to stay. I can only speak of the untold suffering the Internet is causing parents and spouses. You could write a book about the subject. Thanks for an astute and timely post.
All things "Internet" is a topic close to my heart. I make my living working via the Internet. If not for it, I would be in the boat that many chronically ill people are, unable to provide for themselves. That's the good part of the Internet. As is OS. Friends and getting to know people we'd never know any other way.
A young girl that is near and dear to my heart was 'beat up' so the video could be posted on YouTube. I have family members that have suffered cyber bullying and cyber stalking. Those are the bad parts.
But I digress. Thank you. Your comments mean a lot to me. :)