(This history column first appeared in the August print edition of the Hendersonian.)
Thousands of people gathered Feb. 5, 1892, in the courthouse square to witness the last legal hanging in Henderson County.
There’s a distinction, of course, between legal executions and lynching. Rainey Bethea was hanged Aug. 14, 1936, in Owensboro. That was the country’s last public execution. In his trial, Bethea was convicted of raping a 70-year-old white woman. His lawyers presented no defense and the jury returned a verdict in less than five minutes…