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In July 1982, the city of Waco, Texas was horrified by the brutal murders of three teenagers, two girls and a boy. Deputy Truman Simmons got the idea that local store owner Muneer Mohammad Deeb hired three men (including David Wayne Spence) to kill a woman named Gayle Kelly. But Gayle Kelly was not even one of the victims. Deputy Simmons claimed that the killers had mistaken one of the girls as Kelly, and then killed the others because they were witnesses. Frierson stated in interviews, "There has been a person that has been named as being the culprit, who is now deceased. And it was said by the family that there was a deathbed confession." Frierson said that the rumored culprit came from a well-known, prominent white family. A member, or members, of that family had served on the initial coroner's inquest jury, which had recommended that Stinney be prosecuted. [27]It is likely that Frierson was speaking of George Burke Jr., who has become an alternate suspect by modern day researchers. Spence, Deeb, and two other men were arrested with no evidence to prove their guilt. There were no witnesses that placed them at the scene. Despite the brutality of the murders and the belief that the girls had been raped, there was no physical evidence that tied any of the three men to the murders. The only thing that linked the men to the murders were some supposed jailhouse confessions that other inmates claimed that the men had made. Many of these men later recanted their stories and admitted they had been offered lighter sentences or the opportunity to have sex with their wives or girlfriends in the district attorney’s office. Two other witnesses, a prostitute and a fortune-teller, split part of the reward money when they testified that Ross confessed to them. Hairs from Alma Tirtschke were compared with hairs found at Ross’ home, one blonde and one red, but an examiner still testified they came from the same person. a b c Barbato, Lauren (December 17, 2014). "The Youngest Person Executed In America, George Stinney Jr., Almost Certainly Wasn't Guilty". Bustle.com.
The charge applied to Stinney's body during his execution amounted to 4,300 volts in total according to a contemporary news article, not far off the "5,380 volts" claimed in the Facebook post. Charles Kelly, whose father was a longstanding chaplain at the South Carolina State Penitentiary and witnessed 34 executions, wrote about Stinney's death in his book Next Stop, Eternity: Karyn Parsons' How High the Moon has a subplot where a friend of the main character is framed for murdering two white girls, similarly to the George Stinney case. [48]George Stinney, 14-year-old convicted of '44 murder, exonerated". WIS TV. December 17, 2014. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016 . Retrieved December 17, 2014.
Judge Explains Her Decision in George Stinney Jr. Case". wltx.com. February 19, 2015 . Retrieved September 7, 2022. They said he killed those girls and I knew that was a lie," one sister, Amie Ruffner, testified, referring to police assertions at the time that George had confessed to the crime.
Carlos DeLuna
KR: The two little girls passed our house and they said they were going looking for maypops and asked us if we knew anything about maypops and we said no, you know. And they just went on down the street, riding their bikes, two little girls. Jimmy Price/Columbia Record George Stinney Jr. (second from right) was likely coerced into confessing to the murder of two girls.
At Stinney’s execution six weeks later, the guards had difficulty strapping him to the electric chair (he was 5′ 1″ and weighed just over 90 pounds). During the electrocution, the jolt shook the adult-sized mask from his head. South Carolina Deaths, 1915–1965," database with images, FamilySearch ( https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FGBH-P91: 18 July 2017), Betty June Binniker, 24 Mar 1944; citing , Binniker, Betty June, 1944, Department of Archives and History, State Records Center, Columbia; FHL microfilm 1,943,933. Mark Kantrowitz, “ The Killing of George Stinney Jr.,”(Rhode Island: Rhode Island Lawyers Weekly, 2018). ↵ LB: Oh, I think about her all the time. I’ve got a picture of her over there. She was a real pretty little girl. She had dark brown hair, dark brown eyes. She was just a darling baby. She said: "No one can justify a 14-year-old child charged, tried, convicted and executed in some 80 days." The injustices, she said, included a witness who discovered the victims' bodies being allowed to sit on the coroner's inquest; a trial that lasted less than a day; a state-appointed defence lawyer, Plowden, who did not call any witnesses, ask any questions on cross-examination, offered little or no defence and filed no appeal. Mullen concluded: "In essence, not much was done for this child when his life lay in the balance." Her ruling is expected any day.Newman refused to reveal where George was detained as talk of lynching the boy swirled around Alcolu. Not even George’s parents knew where he was. Days turned into weeks as the trial approached, and neither parent saw nor spoke to George. Mrs. Stinney prayed furiously. They didn’t have any money. What could do they do? Jesse Wegman, “ George Stinney was Executed at 14,”(New York: New York Times, January 12, 2015), 9. ↵ In 2014 his conviction was posthumously vacated based on the fact there was little evidence he committed these crimes and supposedly there had been a deathbed confession by a prominent white member of the community about the murders. Banner, Stuart (March 5, 2005). "When Killing a Juvenile Was Routine". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 12, 2016.
Nonetheless, many of the civil rights activists who climbed the Clarendon County courthouse steps to protest the child’s burning felt that those in power hadn’t done enough to remember the area’s racist history — or atone for it. With a group called A New Day, Dupree worked to create the memorial gravestone to honor George and make known the injustice done to him. The child was buried in an unmarked grave to protect its sanctity from vandals and racists, but Dupree wouldn’t let him be cast the villain of Alcolu’s history anymore. I don’t want to leave anyone out. I want them to feel like this is their Alcolu, too. And it is,” she said.The Washington Post – It Took 10 Minutes To Convict 14-Year-Old George Stinney Jr. It Took 70 Years After His Execution To Exonerate Him.
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