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Kentuckians convicted of every capital crime except criminal assault die in the electric chair. For rapists the penalty is hanging in the county where the crime was committed. Last year 1,500 sightseers packed Smithland to see William Thomas De Boe become the State's first white man hanged for rape (TIME, April 29, 1935). Last week in Daviess County, which has not had a hanging since a private one in 1905, a Negro outdrew white William De Boe nearly 7-to-1 as a gallows performer...
...packed to the doors. Down the main street tipsy merrymakers rollicked all night. "Hanging parties" were held in many a home. Sheriff Thompson's 17-year-old daughter sneaked out against her mother's orders to attend one. As before the execution of Rapist De Boe, one motorist was in such a hurry to get to the scene that he cracked up, killed himself...
...crowd learned that Sheriff Thompson could not nerve herself to her job. Fingering the trap lever instead was Arthur ("Daredevil Dick") Hasch, a pensioned Louisville policeman, deputized by Sheriff Thompson. The Sheriff miserably sat in her automobile 50 yd. away. Assistant Hangman Hanna adjusted the noose. Unlike Rapist De Boe, who was permitted to quarrel for an hour with his victim, Negro Bethea had nothing to say. "Man, he's there!" whispered an admiring spectator. The hot-dog sellers fell quiet...
TIME, April 29 (National Affairs, "Death of De Boe") unfairly calls Mr. Phil Hanna "a professional executioner . . . from Illinois," unkindly cuts his visage three-quarters away in the accompanying picture of ''Robber-not a Rapist'' De Boe. No professional, no executioner, Mr. Hanna is a gentleman farmer who lives on land that has been in the family since 1808. . . . He has assisted at some 65 hangings (he does not recall the exact number), has never sprung a trap. Years ago, the revolting sight of a public strangulation as a result of an incorrectly tied noose...
Swish! The body fell, jerked the rope taut. Then it spun a little, the toes of De Boe's shiny shoes poised a few inches above a puddle of water in the pit beneath the gallows...