Post

As a young girl, my grandmother had a medical emergency on a train. Diverted, she just happened to be recovering in the nearest hospital in Owensboro, Kentucky when the last public execution in US history took place. She didn't attend, but the experience disturbed her for the rest of her days

This post is unavailable.

John Cutting

@fortunasaga.com

60+ years later, she would shudder while telling to us about gleeful, casual bloodlust of the people who attended. They boasted about the cruel things they said to the condemned man and showed off souvenirs they claimed to have snatched from the corpse.

10/10/26, 7:49 pm1 repost11 likes

John Cutting

@fortunasaga.com

These were doctors, nurses, and other caregivers delighted to skip out on work to see a gruesome spectacle. This frightened her so much that she begged her parents to risk moving her on the next train so she could escape that horrid place,

John Cutting

@fortunasaga.com

but they couldn't because the city was too overcrowded with thousands of tourists that came specifically for the execution. That experience forever shattered her view of society. She had a deep mistrust of strangers because there was no way just people could tolerate such barbarism.