Owensboro and America’s Last Public Execution

Podcast: Yore Town · Beard Laws Studio, Bleav

Opublikowano: 2026-08-10

On August 14, 1936, thousands of people arrived in Owensboro, Kentucky before sunrise. They came to watch a man die. Rainey Bethea's hanging would become known as the last fully public execution in American history. Estimates placed the crowd between 10,000 and 20,000 people, nearly the size of Owensboro itself at the beginning of the decade. But what happened that morning, and what America remembers happening, may not be exactly the same thing. In this episode of Yore Town, Matt and Megh uncover the murder of Lashia Edwards, the evidence that led authorities to Rainey...