found: African American National Biography, accessed April 24, 2015, via Oxford African American Studies Center database:(Bethea, Rainey; Joseph Rainey Bethea; cause celebre; born 16 October 1913 in Roanoke, Virginia, United States; barely literate; hardly knew his parents; began doing odd jobs for a white family, in whose basement he lived for a couple of years (1933); turned to a life of petty crime and began drinking heavily; was sentenced to one year at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville, but was released on parole (1935); burgled a white widow's home (7 June 1936), raped her and she subsequently died from the assault; was condemned to hang (31 July 1936); his public hanging was set for the Daviess County courthouse (14 August 1936); his case became a national cause célèbre; the controversy surrounding his hanging persuaded Kentucky to join the rest of the country in abolishing public executions; died 14 August 1936 in Owensboro, Kentucky, United States)
