Latest / Minor Mischief Podcast / The Gory Tale of George Stinney Jr.

Transcript

The Gory Tale of George Stinney Jr. · Minor Mischief Podcast

• Kiki George: What happens when an innocent passerby conversation turns into the fastest trial of the century? This is the Minor Mischief Podcast and this is the Gory Tale of George Stinney Jr. Guess who's back and I'm working on the clock. Say bro, it's crooked. I got him jerkin' the block. This. Welcome back. Welcome back to another episode of the Minor Mischief Podcast. I am your host and a homegirl for the time being, Mrs. Kiana Amir. And I am so excited for you to be hanging out with me. How is everyone's February going? February apparently has the decency that January did not have because I feel like January made you feel every minute of every day. It was the longest month in creation. It was the longest month in my personal history. And I feel like February has a little bit more clash, you know, a little bit more decorum. She's a little bit more demure, a little bit more mindful. But baby, February must have places to be and people to see because she is flying. I looked up, I'm like, it's mid-February already. Like, we're here. Valentine's Day is Saturday. Happy Valentine Valentine's. Who raised me? Happy Valentine's Day, also, my loves. I hope you guys have great plans. And if you don't, make plans for yourself. Love on yourself. It's fine. I promise you. It is fine. And if you want to chat, send me an email. We can chat. Not a problem. I'm not sure what is going on in my life, but I just feel like lately I have just been so busy all the time. Like, bruh, I need a break and I need some space. As mentioned last week in honor of Black History Month, I really wanted to focus on some more historic crimes, some more Black history facts that we may not know, just some more crimes that, you know, we can really get into in the comments and talk about. And so I started looking just for stories, you know, in black history, black American history that I can cover. And I was severely Severely underprepared for the wealth of stories that I would find and how similar they all were in nature. I was just like, listen, history clearly repeats itself because what? Is actually crazy. And I know, yes, I think we all know about America's butchered and broken past. Like, but some of these stories were just like they were insane and they were just unfortunate and they just really hurt to the core. So I'm sharing them in hopes of starting important conversations, bringing awareness. And most importantly, looking back on a past in black American history that they've tried to get us to forget. And even though it's like, hey, forget about those things that was in the past, you know, we don't deal with that. Like we're in a brand new day and age. Number one, it doesn't feel like it. And number two, the only way to shape where you're going is to know where you've been. So today's story focuses on George Stinney. But I'm respectfully not going to call him our mischief maker for reasons that I'll get into later on in the story. And our victims today, unfortunately, are Betty June Binneker and Mary Tames. So for today's story, we're heading back way back to March 1944. Cue some music from the 40s, shall we? We shall. So it's now nineteen forty-four, and at this time in the US history, the US was at war, World War II was in full swing, victory had not yet occurred, but many Americans were starting to believe that the war would be turning in the favor of the United States soon and very soon. Jobs were hot and ready as production was a part of everyday life. It seemed like everywhere on every street corner in every town and in every neighborhood, manufacturing plants were popping up. Because they needed to provide weapons and they needed to provide clothing and they needed to make aircraft parts and on and on and on. And so the need was nonstop because of the war. And so because the need was nonstop, production was nonstop. And so jobs started going twenty-four-seven, morning shift, night shift. People were working around the clock trying to make sure that our soldiers had exactly what they needed. Even though the citizens of the United States Banded together as one nation under God, one ban, one sound, in opposition of the European nations and what they were doing over there. For black Americans, this was not the tune. Black Americans fought in the war, but segregation was still very much alive, legal, and very prevalent. So here you have black men fighting and dying for a country that did not even see them as fit enough to drink out of the same water fountain as their white counterparts. They were going across seas and Shabby travel conditions, they were growing going across seas in, you know, the back of the planes or in steerage or whatever you call it. Like they just did not have the same jobs or the same wartime accommodations as the white servicemen. And it was quite ironic that Americans were fighting a war against the racial ideology of Nazi Germany while still living in the Jim Crow era back at home. And that's America, guys, in a nutshell. Hypocritical. But I digress. And to this day, America continues to be bass awkwards. So speaking of the Jim Crow era South, that is a part of the foundation for the story as it takes place in Alcolu, South Carolina. And Alcolo, South Carolina is a small town. And when I say small baby, I mean small. The entire city is about four and a half miles altogether. And it's located in Clarendon County, South Carolina, which is about an hour and a half northwest of Charleston, South Carolina. Alcolo, South Carolina was found around 1885 when D.W. Alderman, a prominent businessman, and also the Al in Alcolo, had several businesses. And he thought, you know what? You know what would be a great idea? Let's create a town for all of the people that work for me. They can have a place to live. We can create our own bank. Like he really had this vision, along with two of his partners, to create an all-inclusive working American town. And they had various businesses, they had various manufacturing plants, they had a sawmill, a hosiery mill, a flooring mill, they had farms and cattle ranches. As time progressed, they built their own hotel. They built a general store. And over time, partnership with members of the town, they went on to build schools and churches. They built their electric plant, their post office. They built railroads, greens, beans, potatoes, tomatoes. You name it, Alcolu had it because they were a self sufficient and self inclusive town. A cool fact that I found about the initial residents of Alcolu, apparently they were not paid in money. They were paid in what was called Babbits. Which were coins that they can use to spend throughout the town to get haircuts. They could go see a movie. They can go to a baseball game. Whatever they wanted, this money was widely accepted in the town. Now that sounds cute and all, but my question is if I'm working and being paid in Babbitt, can I go to the bank and transfer this for regular money if I wanted to take my family to Disney? What do I do if I want to go on a vacation? I can't pay travelosity in Babbitt's. But this worked for them and that's what they did. Now, Alcola was not exempt from playing by the rules of the very segregated South. And they actually not only played by the rules, but they played by the rules and enforced the rules very well. Alcola was divided into two sections. There was a white side of town, known for its beautiful homes, paved streets, and a well functioning utility service. And there was also a colored side of town who was not as fortunate because they lived in rundown buildings, they lived on dirt roads, and their utilities were scarce. The two sides of Alcolu were separated by a railroad track, hence the term wrong side of the tracks. And the term wrong side of the tracks is not Alcolu specific, but it comes from basically most of the towns in the segregated south where the white side of town and the black side of town were separated by a railroad track. So on the white side of town, you typically see nicer houses. The streets were paved, people were going to and coming from work. They had nice cars, housewives, XYZ. And then on the black side of town, there were bumpy roads and roads that led to dead ends. They were dirt roads. They didn't have electricity most of the time or some of the time, just depending on where you were living. And it was just as soon as you crossed the tracks, there was just a huge difference. So I live in North Carolina and where I live, there is a railroad track that goes I don't want to say straight through the town, but let's just say straight through the town. And it's still the same here. On one side of the railroad tracks, there's a country club. You have nicer grocery stores. You have Publix, you Harris Teeter. the schools are a little better on that side of the tracks. And then on the other side of the tracks, that's where the health department is. And that's where, you know, the quote unquote hood is. And that's where, you know, the Wick office and all of those things are. And I'm just like I was researching this story and then I was driving home today and I was like, not me living on the white side of the tracks. It's not funny, but I was like, damn, like now granted, the town that I live in is historically a mill town just like Alcolo. So that's probably the case. But I'm like, baby, it's twenty twenty six. It's time, it's time to start sprucing up the other side of the railroad tracks. And I Gentrification is a real thing, so I can honestly say that they have torn down a bunch in the very small time that I've lived here, and I can see where they're making a change, but it's just like ugh yikes. Anyway, that is not why we are here. So you get the point. Alcolo's black American residents were given the most dangerous yet much lower paying job. And present-day Alcolu, South Carolina, is still very much a mill town known for its tranquil environment and small but young population. The population of Alcolu is about 500, and the average Alcolu resident is 21 years of age. On the white side of Alcolu, back in the day, we meet Betty June Binneker. And Betty June Binneker was born on December 9, 1932, to her parents John Binneker, who was a serviceman and later a corrections officer, and Daisy Lee Dukes. Binneker. I'm not going to hold you, but her name being Daisy Dukes floored me. Every time I read it was like Daisy Dukes, I was like, my gosh, Daisy Dukes with a Daisy Dukes on. Now, Betty was the youngest of six, and her siblings were named Vermel, Lorreen, Oscar, John, and Harold. She was a student at the local school who enjoyed playing outside and loved her family very much. Now, Mary Emma Thames was born on Ma March 14th, 1937, to her parents, Ben Oliver Thames and Lula May Thames. LulaMay, that is such. I mean, certain names when you even Betty June, like Betty June, Lula May, Vermel, Lorreen. some of these names, I'm like, my gosh, they were definitely names of the time. So like my mom's name is Barbara. And I have never met a Barbara that is my age. If your name is Barbara and you are under 40 years old, I need you to tap in. Like I need to know you because I have never met a Barbara around my age. Certain names like Mildred and Gertrude and and Fanny, like just certain names are just very specific to the time. So that's how I felt about LulaMay's name. George Stinney Jr. was born on October 21st, 1929, to his parents George Stinney Sr. and A May. I'm assuming it's pronounced A May because there's an accent over the E, but I may be wrong. George was the oldest of four siblings, and his siblings' names were Charles, Catherine, and A May. Now she could have been A May Jr., and if so, I know that's right, A May. You better make you a little you. I love it. George was described as a straight A student who loved to draw. His life mirrored the story of many black Americans during this time which involved going to school, serving at church, doing your household chores, tending to the land, and being dedicated to making something of himself. I did read one source that said that he was the baddest kid in the neighborhood, but the person who said it wanted to remain unidentified, so we'll take that with a grain of salt. So now it's the afternoon of march twenty fourth, nineteen forty four. It's a Friday afternoon, beautiful spring day. It's about sixty five degrees outside. Now, I do want to preface this by saying I had an incredibly hard time penning down the actual date of this story because some sources say it happened on March 22nd, some say it happened on March 23rd, some say it happened on March 24th. I found a newspaper article from the day of the crime, and there was no date on it. I looked at Betty June. And Mary's headstones. One says they died on March 22nd, and the other one says they died on March 24th. I do not have the correct answer. But for all intents and purposes, Betty June's family was very active in this case. And her headstone said that she died on March 24th. So that is the date that we're gonna go with. But it is possible that the story actually took place on March 23rd or March 22nd. But just for the sake of my storytelling, we're going to say it happened on March 24th. I would be more than willing to redact it and to correct it if anyone knows the actual date. And that's all I'm gonna say about that. So, without further ado, it's March 24th, 1944. It's a beautiful spring day, 65 degrees outside. School had just let out for the weekend, and the children are looking forward to playing outside and having some fun. Betty June and Mary head over to their respective homes after school. They drop off their things, they change their clothes, and they go on a mission to pick Maypops. Maypops, for those of you like myself who have no idea who what they are, they are a purple and sometimes purple and white flower that goes by the name of the purple passion flower. I think it's called elderflower purple or like or passionist purple or something like that. Anyway. Apparently may pops smell really amazing. They have tons of medicinal effects and you can eat them because they're kind of sweet. So the girls set out on their journey and they stopped by the home of one of their neighbors to ask if she can help them find the flowers. The woman at the time was babysitting the son of one of the town's residents, Mr. George Burke, and told the girls that she could not help them at this time. And they got back on their bikes and continued to ride through town. So while Mary and Betty June are on this mission, George and his sister Aimee also have gotten home from school, changed their clothes, and Amy looks at George and is like, you know what would be really fun? Let's go outside. Like we have chores to do anyway. Let's go play over by the railroad tracks. It's sunny outside, it's a little warm. We can graze the cows and get out of the house for a minute. Doesn't that sound fun, George? And I guess George agreed because that's exactly where they went. Now when I read this and I saw that it said that they went by the tracks to graze their cow. The indoor girly and myself could not fathom. Like, I don't know what that that means. I don't really fool with the great outdoors. I like to be able to control the temperature and control my environment around me. So being in the company of cows will never be my thing. But I thought cows just graze themselves. Like, don't they just eat those their own grass? Let me know. But I'm wondering though, if because they lived on like the dilapidated side of town, if they had to take their cows someplace specific. For it to eat grass because there wasn't grass behind their house. I don't know, but maybe the cows maybe the cows needed more grass, but I'm confused, friend. But they went out to graze the cows by the railroad tracks. So George and Amy are playing by the railroad tracks and Betty June and Mary ride up to them and ask them if they know where they can find the Maypops. Another instance that shows you racism is taught and not inherent because why else would they be on the colored side of town looking for flowers? Because I'm sure their parents would Never. So Betty June and Mary ride up to George and Ame and they're just like, hey guys, we're looking for May pops. Do you know where we can possibly find some? And George and Amee tell them no because fun fact, Maypops only bloom from July to September. So they could have taken their bikes all across Alcolo, they would not have found May pops because they genuinely just were not in season. So the girls ride off and George and Ame go back to doing their thing. Some time passes. And both Betty June and Mary's parents realize like, wait a minute, my baby girl not home yet. So they go out and they start asking their neighbors if anyone had seen them and their neighbors are like, yeah, like we saw them over there earlier and I saw her riding her bike over here and she was down by that one house. And I know for a fact I saw them ride over to the colored side of town, but I thought, you know, they'll be fine. Now being that this is a town where everybody knows everybody and no one had seen or heard from the girls, instant panic set in. And a search party was quickly formed. By the time night falls, a search party of over 150 men were canvassing the town in search of Betty June and Mary. Something that I learned just through like Bible study is whenever you read a story and it says 150 men, that does not account for the women and children that were involved because back then, you know, we weren't as important. And so you can probably ad like rightfully say that. Almost the whole town was looking for them. If it's a town of 400 people, 150 men were searching, not including the colored folks, then it had to be at least 250 people searching for Betty, June, and Mary. Early the next morning, right about sunrise, Donald Paget and Francis Batson found the bodies of Betty June and Mary in a ditch filled with water, and one of their disassembled bikes was laying on top of them. So apparently one of the bikes or the bike that was found on top of them, the front wheel was gone, but it was laying like I think Mary was at the bottom, Betty was on top, and then the bike was like wedging them down into this ditch. Upon the discovery of the girls' bodies, local police quickly began the task of solving their murders. I cannot find one article or anything that gave me an appropriate timeline of what happened next. But I will tell you what I could piece together from the information that I found. So police at this time are going door to door and they're asking the residents, like, hey, where were you at this time? Do you know anything about what happened to Betty June and Mary? Like, hey, the Binnekers lost their daughter. You know, the Thames family, their daughter is dead. We're trying to figure this out. Do you know what's going on? Do you know where they have been? Do you know anything about their whereabouts the day before? Do you know anyone that was over here? And they stop at the home of someone who chose to remain unidentified. And they were asked, like, hey, do you know anything about the murder of Betty June and Mary? And this person was just like, you know what, you should probably look for the meanest person in the neighborhood. And the police are just like, okay, well, who in your opinion is the meanest person in the neighborhood? And they looked at them and they were just like, George Stinney. So police head over to the Stinney residence and ask George. And A May, if they encountered the girls. And naturally they're just like, Well, yeah, we saw them yesterday. We were out there playing by the railroad tracks. they rolled up, they're just like, Hey, you know, do you guys know where we can find Maypops? And we were just like, Girl, no, we don't know where you can find Maypops. And then they rode off, we came back home, end of story. Or so you would think. So at this time, police take George and his older brother John in for questioning, and they are both arrested. Now, their parents were told that they were not allowed to see them until the investigation was complete, and then they can go from there. Now, John had just signed up to serve in the armed forces, was released from police custody about five and a half hours later. George, however, was not as fortunate. He was questioned for over four hours without his parents or any other adult but the police officer present, and his interview ended with an alleged confession detailing the killing of Betty June and Mary and leading the police. Back to the tracks where he and MA were the day before. While at the tracks, he allegedly pointed police to a stake in the ground near the tracks and told them that was the weapon used. He also allegedly confessed to police that he sexually assaulted Betty June. Now, back in those days, one of the most justifiable reasons for lynching a man, a black man, was sexual assault of a white woman. And so keep that in your hat. For later on in this story. An article went out in the daily newspaper that read, Two Alcolo girls found slain earlier today. Negro youth admits to the crime. I'm not gonna lie, that is suspicious to me in itself because how could the local news publish on the day of the crime about the crime that occurred? Because let's look over the timeline of events. This happened the afternoon before. Mary and Betty June were not found until the sun came up the following day. And on that same day, the police are questioning everyone in town. They find, you know, George and John and Amy. They they question them. They take George and John into custody. John was questioned for five and a half hours and let go. George was questioned for four hours and remained. And that same day. In the newspaper, printed and distributed is an article about George committing the crime. It just seems like a little preplanned but I digress. At any rate I'm gonna go on a rant about that during my final thoughts. An official statement was released by George's arresting officer, Officer H. S. Newman, stating, I arrested a boy by the name of George Stinney. He then made a confession and told me where to find a piece of iron about 15 inches, where he said he put it in a dish about six feet from the bicycle. George's confession was given without an attorney or his parents present and was neither written nor recorded. Betty June and Mary's bodies were sent for autopsy, and the medical examiner concluded that both girls were killed by being bludgeoned over the head by a blunt instrument with a round head. Probably like a hammer or the size of a hammer. The ME did not find any evidence of sexual assault, but did note that Betty June's genitals were slightly bruised. Immediately following George's arrest, George Sr. was fired from his job at the mill. And the family had to pack up and move to George's paternal grandmother's house. George Sr. was not going to be able to find employment in Alcolu since everything was owned and operated by the Alderman family and their descendants. And the family had started receiving serious threats after George's arrest. And when I say serious threats, I mean serious threats. Additionally, like I mentioned earlier, the family was not allowed to see George once he was arrested, and there was just honestly no point in them staying. Following a lynching attempt, by a mob on March twenty second I mean excuse me, following a lynching attempt by a mob on March twenty sixth, nineteen forty-four, George was moved to a jail in Columbia, South Carolina, fifty miles away for his safety. Pretty much all of the residents of Alcolu wanted George dead and they wanted his family to pay for their son's alleged sins. It was just a really unstable and unsafe time in life for the Stenney family. Betty June was laid to rest at the Smoke Family Cemetery in Orangeburg County, South Carolina And Mary was laid to rest at the Liberty Free Will Baptist Church Cemetery in Clarendon County, South Carolina. So completely off topic. I a few days ago, my husband and I were driving somewhere, and we drove past a cemetery. And I looked at him and I was like, have you ever seen a grave from before like 1970? And he looked at me and he was just like, I don't know. Like, why are you asking me this question? I'm like, I have never seen a grave of like someone buried in nineteen twenty, outside of the famous ones like the Gettysburg ones and the the well popular, like, hey, this is where s like Elvis, like you can still find Elvis' grave if he's buried. I don't know if he was buried or cremated. I'm not an Elvis fan. I thought he was a horrible person. But have you ever seen a grave for like someone that died like in the eighteen hundreds? Or in the nineteen twenties. Or, you know, it just makes me wonder, like, I don't think I ever have outside of like the memorial graves in DC or like, you know, like I said, Gettysburg or places like that where it's just like, hey, this is where this incident happened, these are where these people are buried. Like, yes, those are completely fine and traceable. But for like the regular Joe who died of a heart attack or who died of the bubonic plague or who died of syphilis. Like, where are they? I have never seen them. Have you? Just out of curiosity. I was also, I think I was drunk when we were having this conversation, but but it really got me thinking like, have you ever just like been visiting a loved one in a cemetery and seen like a grave from the 1920? Like I wonder if after a while if they're just like, listen, all their descendants are dead, get rid of them and let's put new people here. I'm just curious. Just curious. George was tried in a courtroom packed with about 1,500 white spectators and led by Judge PH Stohl. George's trial started exactly one month after the girls' murders on April 24th, 1944. He was tried in front of a jury of all white males. And George's family nor anyone black or of black descent was allowed to attend the trial because it was held on the white side of town and it was illegal for them to be there. The only evidence that the prosecutor presented was a statement from the arresting officer, Officer Newman, loosely detailing George's confession. Other pieces of evidence submitted by the prosecution were handwritten notes, a picture of the area, the arrest warrant, George's indictment, and that was it. In the evidence submitted, the weapon was listed as an iron spike, although the coroner did state that the weapon used in Betty June and Mary's murder had to be larger than the spike that they were shown. The original Emmy was not brought in for questioning, but someone else named Dr. Baker came in and corroborated the state's case. George's appointed attorney, who was a young man with zero experience by the name of Charles Plowden. Now get this. Charles Plowden at the time had just become a lawyer. Prior, he was a tax preparer and And he really just took the case on to fund his political ambitions. So George's this trial, this case, this murder, it all happened during a very important election year. And the lawyer, and I use the term lawyer very loosely, that represented George was running for a public office. And so he took on the case for exposure. So that people would get to know his name and know who he was because he had every intention of running in that election. And he wasn't quite as known at the time, allegedly. Charles brought forward no defense, no evidence. He called up no witnesses. He did not even call George to the stand. And George's alibi, his sister Aimee, was not allowed in the courtroom because she was black. Charles also did not cross examine the state's witnesses or question any of the evidence brought forth by the state. George's trial lasted about two hours from 2 30 p.m. to 4 55 p.m. Yes, that's right, friends. His trial lasted less than half of a work shift, and the jury went out to deliberate that afternoon. They returned to the courtroom ten minutes later and found George guilty. In that very moment, the judge sentenced George to death by electrocution. So George's entire trial for murder of two women, two girls I should say, started after lunch and was wrapped up by dinner. By dinner, his fate was sealed. And that to me is just I don't understand. On June sixteenth, nineteen forty four, in a room with about forty people, including the fathers of both Betty June and Mary, a five foot one inch ninety five pound George was strapped into the electric chair. George's parents or family once again were not allowed in the execution chamber to comfort him. They were not allowed to see him before he was set to be executed. They were not allowed to hug him, hold him, talk to him, kiss him, wipe his tears, nothing. Because they were black and they were not allowed on that side of town. Pretty much after George was arrested, his family never saw him again. Two executioners had to strap him in tight as the strap and headpiece were full of Far too large for George. And after they realized George was not tall enough to reach the headpiece, they sat him on the biggest book they can find The Bible. Once placed on the Bible, George's feet no longer touched the floor. The executioner flipped the switch and 2400 volts of electricity surged through George's 95 pound body. In the beginning of the execution, the because he was convulsing essentially, the mask, the headpiece, fell off of him. And when it fell off of him, they said his eyes were wide and full of tears, and he looked at everyone in the room. And they all kind of just looked at him and he looked at them and they looked at him. And apparently seeing him like that was not enough to calm down the crowd of people advocating for his death. George Stinney was and still is the youngest person to ever be executed in the 20th century. Fun fact: the youngest person to ever be executed in US history was twelve-year-old Hannah Okoish. Who was hanged for the murder of six-year-old Eunice Bowles. And that's probably gonna be a future minor mischief episode because I want to I really want to know what happened there. After his execution, George's body was taken to Job's funeral home in Sumter, South Carolina, where his family was finally able to hold him, see him, touch him, and lay him to rest. He was buried at the Calvary Baptist Church Cemetery in Sumter, South Carolina. And I promise you. It does not matter where you are, you can be in the hills of Wyoming, you can be at the shore in Washington State, you can be in Detroit, you can be in Florida, you can be in Maine, you can be in Texas, you can be in New Mexico. There will be a Calvary church. I swear. In two thousand nine, a new but unnamed witness came forward with details that they believed would clear Georgia's name. They drafted a sworn statement, but this apparently went nowhere because of inadequate legal representation. In 2014, the Stinney family and the Banneker family were once again called into court. Apparently, no one from the Thames family could be reached or able to show up as Mary's parents and brother were all deceased at this time. A group of students at the Northeastern University School of Law pushed for a judicial review after studying George's case. Apparently George's family by this time had really stopped trying to clear his name because his sister Aime said they were sick and tired of the broken promises promises, stating enough is enough. I have nothing to hide, but it gets to a point where you want to move on with your life. I'm happy with my life right now. If someone can get something done, great. If not, I'm okay with it. Rejection is something I can handle. I have learned to accept the things I cannot change. I've lived a long time with this. The only thing I want to do is get my soul salvation in order. My brother has been out of his pain and suffering for a very long time. So basically, over the years, so many people came to the Stinney family. So many people came, they're just like, hey, we're gonna get his case reopened, we're gonna get it retried, we're gonna get this, we're gonna get him exonerated, we're gonna get his name cleared, we're gonna and she said after a while it got to the point where she didn't want to talk to anybody anymore because you keep coming, you keep saying you're gonna do this, you keep saying you keep making me this promise. That you guys are gonna basically clear my brother's name. And she got to the point where she's just like, My brother's dead. And y'all about to kill me if you keep coming to me with this. So respectfully leave me alone. After a while, Ame and I believe what was the other sister's name? Catherine, they stopped even taking interviews. Like they only spoke to a very, very, very select few people, and they only spoke to people who they believed would bring awareness and proper awareness to Georgia's story. And not only did they only speak to people that they thought would bring awareness to George's story, but they brought people they brought awareness to the people who they felt like would do their due diligence in actually researching and figuring out what happened. And they just had not found anyone that they trusted to do that. And so she was over it. And honestly, I get it. So according to A May, she made peace with knowing that in her heart, George was innocent, even though no one ever took her seriously. So one thing I did not mention earlier that I'm gonna mention now is that according to A May, after the girls rode off and she and George went home, George sat in the living room and did his homework for the rest of the evening. After that, they had dinner, he washed up, they went to bed. George never left the house. And during the time that they said that the girls were killed, George was at home. She was like, he was there. He was with me. My eyes were on him. Until we went to bed, and by then it would have been too late for him to murder them. She said he never left the house that night, not one single solitary time. In twenty fourteen, like I said, they went back to trial and Judge Carmen Mullen presided over the case. She listens to b she listened to both sides before finding numerous violations of George's rights. George Mullen moved to vacate George's conviction due to numerous. Instances of his constitutional rights being violated and him being tried by an all-white jury instead of a jury of his peers. She also noted that there were no witnesses and that George had an alibi that was never investigated. The investigation officers were believed to need to make an arrest due to it being an elections year and they needed a scapegoat. George being a young black man and the last person to see Betty June and Mary made him that scapegoat. To the date, proof of the confession that implicated George has never surfaced. So, now that I've given you all the facts of the story, I'm going to get into some rumored allegations and I'm about to start dragging it. So, remember earlier that I mentioned a man by the name of George Burt came by the house of the woman that Mary and Betty June asked to come pick flowers with them. But she was watching her grandson. So apparently. Her grandson was George Burke's son. She was George Burke's I think it was his ex-wife, because I don't believe they were married at the time, but I can't say that for sure. But she was George Burke's wife's or baby mother's mother. And she was watching his grandson that day. Follow me here. The allegations were that George Burke saw the girls pull up to this lady's house, asked them to ask her, excuse me, to pick. May pops with them and when she said no, I'm watching my grandson, the rumor is that George kind of followed them around town for a while. And afterwards, when it got really late and when they couldn't find anything, he found a convenient opportunity to pull up next to them and say, Hey girls, do you guys need a ride home? And the rumor is they accepted that ride and that was the last time they were ever seen alive. So Amy Senior, remember, this is George's, this is George Stinney's mom. Apparently she used to work for George Burke at his home. Like she did housekeeping and I think some tailoring and nannying for them. And apparently, the rumor goes that someone in the Burke household made her feel very uncomfortable by making sexual advances towards her. Now the rumor has it that it was George that was basically being kind of like creepy to her. And she left work one day and never returned. At that time, Amy told her husband, George Stinney Senior, like, hey, this guy made me feel super uncomfortable. And you know how people are. You tell one person you could have told them all because the rumor started to spread, and it apparently got back to George Burke that Amy Stinney called him rapey and that she didn't want to work for him because of that. And now, granted, Nobody's gonna believe the colored woman, but apparently it had gained enough traction to where that was the word around town. Because remember, it's a town of a penny. Everybody knows everybody. So it's rumored that George Burke killed the girls and then planted the seed, like, hey, I'm pretty I know like the meanest person in town is that that that Stinny family, that George Stinny, he's just a freaking rude, you know, so and so. And because of that, that's where that rumor came from that George was the meanest person in town. Now, other people in town did call me George mean, and I'm gonna get into that here later. But the word on the street is that George Burke killed the girls and pinned it on George Stinney Jr. to make Amy pay for what she did to him. In addition, George Burke formed the search party. To look for these girls. Just saying. And he led them every which way but the ditch that they were found in. Where are they now, you ask? Most of the Stinney family packed up and got the hell out the south. They were just like, I've seen all I needed to see. So most of them moved to New York and New Jersey after George's execution. And his sister Ame was the last one to be interviewed by the press at that time. So She was a great grandmother who said that after moving to New Jersey, she had been thriving, life had been great to her. She got married, she had kids, they had kids, their kids had kids, and she just really enjoyed loving on her family. She was preceded in death by her husband. and she did pass away in 2020. And her story, when asked in twenty fourteen, was the exact same as it was in nineteen forty four. All those years later, not a detail was changed. She still maintained till her very last day, till her dying breath, that George was at home the entire evening and that she told the police that and they did not believe her. When asked how she felt about everything that happened and, you know, how she felt about George's story, she said that there's a God who sits high and looks low. I know that anyone who had anything to do with this will have to come before a just God. In 2022, the George Stinney bill was signed into South Carolina legislation, which would provide $10 million to families of those exonerated after being executed. It clearly does not bring George back, but it was a blessing to his family. South Carolina State Representative Caesar McKnight spoke on the new bill stating, we can't do justice because justice would be resurrecting Mr. Stinney and allowing him to live and lead a good life. But what we can do is atone for what we've done and And that's what we need to do. Well, the immediate family of Betty June Binneker has all gone to glory. Her, her mama, her daddy, her siblings, they are all gone. In 2014, her niece Frankie opposed changing George's sentencing, saying that she is pretty convinced and sure that George committed the crime. She said, without the shadow of a doubt, I know that George killed my aunt. Even though there is zero evidence to support the allegations and he was with his family the entire evening. But go off, frankly. You're entitled to your opinion. She says that in her heart and in the hearts of all of her family, she believes that George was a killer because again, like I said earlier, he was known as being mean and he had a reputation. And George's reputation came from the fact that whenever the white kids would come on the color side of town, he would be mean to them. It's it's that was a fact. there's a story that said that two of the white kids Because their mom didn't want them drinking the well water on their side of town, which was the white side of town, apparently there was something wrong with the well at their house and their mom was just like, Listen, you guys cannot drink water out of our well. And they would go out and play and they apparently found a well on the black side of town that they loved and they would sneak over to the black side of town and drink up all their water. So it was said that George caught them one day because the well that they would drink out of was right behind his f the church that his family attended. And he walked up on them and was just like, What are y'all doing drinking our water? And they were just like, Well, our mom says we can't drink the water at our house. And George went off. And he was just and basically as they were running away, he was Don't come back here, I'll kill you. George would also fight with the other white kids who came near the colored side of the town because apparently they would cross the tracks to graze their cows, they crossed the tracks to pick their flowers, they crossed the tracks to drink their water, they crossed the tracks just to basically and I'm not saying, you know, George was right, but also I'm saying George was right because it's like, isn't it enough that you guys have better schools, you have better houses, you have electricity, you have running water, you have paved roads, you have a nicer store, you have a nicer church, you have nicer clothes. And all we have is this little bit of grass and the water from this well. And you want to take that too. I would probably do the same thing that George did. I would probably be gone off. And apparently George used to fight the kids regularly. Like they would come over there and he would chew out. And if they ever got big with him, he would he would knuckle up. And if that makes him mean, then so be it. Then he was mean. But honestly, I don't see it as being mean. I see it as him defending the little bit that they had. Because if you drink up all of our water, you're damn sure not gonna pour water back into this community. Flint, Michigan just got clean water. So I, you know, I'm just saying. Now, rumor on the streets of South Carolina is that Betty June's family knows exactly who her true killer was, and they do believe that it was George Burke. A rumor that they vehemently deny. Like they do not play that about Miss Betty June and don't say that George Stinney did not kill her because in their heart, soul, mind, body, and will, they feel like he did. I'm not going to say that I believe the rumor, but the fact that From what I read, no one in Betty June's family is willing to even consider an alternate option. They they're not hearing it. And so it just makes me wonder like Why are you guys so determined? Like there was there was literally no evidence against him because the coroner eventually did say like the weapon that they would have been killed with or bludgeoned with would have had to be a very large, very heavy piece of metal. And the metal that George pointed out was not that. Frankie, however, says that she spoke to one of the officers that arrested George, the late officer S. J. Pratt. Who happened to discuss this case while, you know, she was getting her haircut. And because they all still live in the area, he came to her and he was just like, listen, there was never a broken link in the evidence. We never had any doubt. We know that George killed your aunt. And she basically took that and she's like, That is the law. That's what the police say. Because the police have never lied to us before. Now, while defense attorneys assert that no evidence can be found from George's original trial. Family members have heard over the years how more evidence was collected but never introduced because after George confessed, that's it. It's open and shut case. He confessed. We have his confession, even though it was not taped, recorded, or written down, and that's what we're gonna go with. Now, one of the town's residents said that his father was the arresting officer at the time. And he's just like, listen, I will swear on a stack of Bibles that that boy was guilty. And apparently He says George was guilty because, like I said, his father was the arresting officer. He was in the car with his father when they picked up George and took him back to the station. And he was also in the car with his father when they drove George to be executed. And he said during the ride, George was in the back of the car repeating his confession over and over and over and over and over again. So he's just like, We're sitting in the front and George is in the back, like, I did it. I stabbed the one girl, the other girl was squealing, so I hit her to stop her from squealing. I did it. I stabbed the one girl and I hit the other girl to stop her from squealing. I did it. I hit the one girl and I hit the other girl to stop her from squealing. And he he was just like, it was just weird that he did that. But he's like, I heard it come out of his own mouth. Mm here's my thought on this. Why would someone that confessed to a murder continuously repeat the confession? That doesn't make sense to me. To me, it sounded like he was saying it so that he wouldn't mess it up. That's how it sounds like to me. Like if asked, this is what you say. And he was rehearsing it because if asked, this is what I need to say. That's how it came off to me. And that's all I'm gonna say. locals and family members also say that they heard how law enforcement seized bloody clothes from George's home and recovered the murder weapon with blood on it. However, there was no such evidence that was ever surfaced. And that's the story. Fun fact Karen Parsons, who was well known as Hillary Banks on the original Fresh Prince of Belair, she wrote a book. Called How High the Moon and the case of George Stinney is a subplot in that book. So the book is about something completely different, but frequently in the book they refer to the case of the trial of George Stinney. So I found that pretty interesting. Also, there's a fictional book which I did not read yet, but I'm going to read. It's called Still Waters by Jenna Caldwell. And that book is a fictional adaptation of what George's life would look like had he been given the ability to grow up. So in that book, he grew up to get married. He had kids, and he became a high school art teacher. A detailed account of George's trial and execution is available via the book The Child in the Electric Chair by Eli Farber, which brings me to my final thoughts. I'm gonna be the first to say that I am not the most well-versed in black American history outside of what I was taught in history class and in school, which we all know by now is very historically inaccurate. As you can tell, they don't even tell kids that Christopher Columbus discovered America anymore because we know that what we were taught as children is a lie. So I'm the first generation in my family that was born in America. My family hills from the beautiful island of Trinidad and Tobago or Grenada, because that's where my grandfather's family is from. And I was the first one to be born and mostly raised in the US. When I was younger, we would kind of travel back and forth a lot. So sometimes I went to school there, sometimes I went to school here. So my black American history knowledge is very limited for the simple fact that my mom always taught me of the history of Trinidad and Tobago and not the history of America because she didn't know it. Also, my mother became a US citizen in 2008 and I was the one that had to help her study for his first citizenship test. And half of the stuff they were asking her, I was like, girl, I don't know. Like they did not teach us this in school. So I'm not the most well versed, but what lately, like in my adult years, I have been really diving into, like I said, America's broken and busted past. And in an effort to educate my kids, because I can't expect school to teach them everything they need to know. I can't expect, you know, them to figure it all out on their own. So I try to learn these things so that I can have these conversations with them. And one thing that I was talking to my mom about. Is that when we look back at like the segregated South, when we look back at the past, when we look back on all these things, it's made to feel like it was all these years ago. And I was having a conversation with my mom, and it was then I realized my mom was seventeen when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. She remembers it clear as day, sitting in front of their tube TV in the living room, in Tobago, hearing about this man in America that had been assassinated for fighting for civil rights. And you would think that we would have learned from these things, but we haven't. And I think that if you don't educate yourself, then history is doomed to repeat itself because you're always gonna go off of what you think happened and not what you know for sure happened. And so I'm just when I read these stories and when I see these things and when I educate myself on these things, it just It's incredibly heartbreaking for the simple fact, like I said, one, it feels like we have not made much progress as a nation. And then number two, it feels like we are just and by we, I mean black Americans, it feels like we are made to kind of forget. And I don't think that's the way we should view things. Like you wanna educate yourself on your past. You wanna educate yourself on what happened. You wanna see what your ancestors had been through and you want to be the best version of yourself that you can. And I feel like we're not necessarily given the tools to do so. So I hope that this episode starts to spark some conversation. And I hope that because for me personally, I had never heard of George Stinney. And the reason this case came across was because I literally did a deep dive of some black American minor mischief minor mischief cases from back in the day. And that's how I happened across this. And even though the Stinney family, they don't do interviews much anymore, and a lot of them have all gone on to glory. they want his name to be known. They want him to be known as much as Emmett Till. Because the truth of the matter is, even if he did commit this crime, he should not have suffered the fate that he did. Because there are people that have done more heinous things that are still sitting in prison to this day. Not only that, but There was no evidence. There were no bloody there were no bloody clothes. His alibi was never even taken into consideration. They questioned him without his parents or a lawyer present. They rushed his trial. His family wasn't allowed in the courtroom. His like he had nothing. He went through the most heartbreaking part of his case is that he was a 14-year-old boy that went through all of this alone. He had no one. He could not talk to his family. They were not allowed to visit. He could not hug his mom. He could not tell her I love you. And for his mom, her son was executed and she wasn't even allowed to give him so much as a hug. He got picked up from the house, went through all of this, and the very next time that she was able to even put her hands on her son was when the coroner released his cold dead body. And I feel like the people involved should be ashamed of themselves. Cause some of them are still alive today. And they are still holding on to, yeah, he did this, but okay, even if he did, does that warrant the punishment that was given? Like, does it really? He was 14 years old. No one even listened to his side of the story. And the truth of the matter is I do believe that somewhere deep down in their hearts, they know that he did not do this. It was a rush trial. He had no counsel, no defense, and he was just basically up the creek without a paddle at the age of 14 years old. All because, well, he was mean, so he had to have done this. Did you guys even sit and think for a moment, like, okay, what made him mean? What made him mean is the fact that he his family had very limited resources, and even the limited resources that they did have were not respected. You can't just walk on somebody's property and take their things. Present day America, that's a surefire way to get yourself shot, especially in Florida, because y'all know how I feel about Florida. But it's just this case was incredibly heartbreaking. And I know that his family is at peace now because so much time has passed. But I would still be in an uproar. Honestly. Because even though his sentence was vacated, they never said he was innocent. He was not exonerated. All they said was he wasn't given a fair trial, so let's overturn the ruling. Which was nice. But they never reopened the case to see what other possibilities there may be. And George Burke is the likely suspect. A lot of people think that he did it or had something to do with it. He did pass away two years two months later, or was it two years later? I think it was two years later. He did pass away two years later, so he was never questioned. And a lot of the people who gave statements, who called George mean, who said all these things, a lot of them admitted to being paid to do so. So put that in your hat. At any rate, that's the end of our story. That's the end of our episode. Follow me. Follow me on TikTok at Minor Mischief Pod or on Instagram at Minor Mischief Podcast. Case suggestions, want to chat, wanna be friends, wanna kiki, wanna come on, wanna tell me you love me or tell me you hate me, send me an email, minor mischiefpodcast at gmail.com. I don't know which one of you guys went and told Miss Divine at Cocktails and Crime I want to do an episode with her, but she definitely followed me. I woke up like after that episode was aired and I saw that she followed my page. I was like, my gosh, come on, mischief and crime. Or cocktails in mischief or minors in crime. I'm gonna do an episode with her. Watch. I'm about to pop in her in I'm about to pop in her inbox and be like, you know, girl, how you doing? Let's collab because I truly love her podcast. The other podcast I love is the Bitch I Can't podcast. I do love that and I live Sisters Who Kill. So I'm just saying if anyone y'all wanna give me a shout out, 'cause y'all have a bigger audience than I do. But that is the end of today's show. Thank you all for tuning in. You should be proud of me. I have done like two months of Thursday releases. Thank you. Thank you very much. I'm proud of me. I have lost sleep and I have lost. So many people have come to me like, girl, how do you do it? You have four kids, you work full time, you have a podcast, you wrote a book, and they're just like, How do you have time to do it all? Baby, I don't. If I'm doing something, that means there's something else not being done. My oldest gave my youngest the bath tonight because I was like, I don't have it in me. I gotta go to the studio. So sacrifices are made, but hopefully it's for a very big and great, you know, payout. We'll see. But that's the end of today's show. I know I've said it so many times. So leave me a comment, write a review, get the minor mischief name out there. I'm really gonna try to be better about posting online. It's just, my gosh, I'm trying to grow my personal page too. And there's just so much going on in life. But I will see you all next Thursday. Same place. Same day of the week. And until then, stay mischievous, friends.