A MOST SOBER DAY IT WAS 

1932

The Rev. Dow Booe, pastor of the Apostolic church of Galena, Kan., who baptized Lew Worden in Spring River last week, will accompany the condemned man on his walk to the gallows.

Sheriff Harry Stephens will spring the trap in the presence of 100 witnesses.
The Worden brothers and Pete Stevenson awaiting trial at the April term of circuit court were accused of assaulting three girls the night of last November 15 in a series of highway holdups. Lew Worden was convicted of assaulting a 15 year old Jasper County girl. (The Kansas City Times, Kansas City, Missouri, Thursday, March 3, 1932, page 7)

LEW WORDEN IS HANGED AT 6 O'CLOCK TODAY

In the First Gray Light of Dawn, the Trap was Sprung in Carthage Jail Yard
160 Persons were Present
Worden Pleaded Guilty to Attacking a 16 Year Old High School Girl

Galena, Kansas - America's First Pentecostal Congregation

The Galena, Apostolic Faith Assembly in 1907

"Sin and whiskey are the ruin of people" -- Lew Worden

Carthage, Mo., March 3 - Lew Worden, confessed attacker of a high school girl, walked calmly but without bravado, to death on the gallows here today.

In the first gray light of Dawn, the trap was sprung, while more than 100 persons looked on and nine gospel workers who had spent the night praying for the condemned man sang I live on.
The 34-year-old war veteran whose greatest regret was that the American Legion due to the manner of his death denied him military burial, spoke quietly to his guards as they escorted him to the scaffold at 6 a.m.
Then under prompting of the Rev. Dow Booe, who had been with him through the night, he spoke briefly to the crowd, asserting he believed his punishment was too severe, but that he bore no malice and thanked all for their favors to him. In his hand he carried two roses taken from a bouquet sent him last night. These he handed to a guard as the harness and the black cap were adjusted.
Preparation for the hanging required only a few moments, and the trap was sprung a few minutes after six. Two physicians declared the confessed attacker dead in a few minutes later.
Worden was accused of attacking a 16-year-old high school girl last November 15. He pleaded guilty before Judge Harvey Davis, who condemned his crime as one meriting no mercy and sentenced him to death.
Harry Worden his brother also is under death sentence for alleged participation in the same crime. He was sentenced by Judge Davis after a jury had found him guilty.
The condemned man had spent the night quietly in his cell with the Rev. Booe, and the gospel workers all of whom had come from Galena, Kansas.
As the hours before his death waned, they sang and prayed Worden taking an active part in the services.
At 4 a.m. Worden had his last meal, fried chicken, hot biscuit and pie. He ate heartily.
Shortly before the brief journey to the gallows was begun, Worden called for the correspondent of the Kansas City Journal Post and gave him the following statement as reported to the Journal Post.

This was my first time in trouble. Whiskey did it. If I had been able to keep from drinking, as my mother urged me to do, I would not be here in this cell tonight looking out at the scaffold where in a few minutes I will die.
Right after I was arrested for this crime, I walked into my cell and began praying and have been praying ever since. For many days it seemed as though I would not get an answer to my prayers but when I sent for the Rev. Dow Booe to come over from Galena and explain passages in the Bible, everything began to look brighter.
He sang some songs and prayed for me and I was baptized on Feb. 22. Since then I have been saved. There has been no fear of meeting God from that day. I was prepared from that hour. I would like to tell everyone that sin and whiskey are the ruin of people. I wish to thank everybody for many things they have done for me. May God be with them is my prayer.

Then Worden who could neither read nor write, glanced at newspapers which told of his approaching execution. He smiled, but said nothing.
Sheriff Harry D. Stephens sprung the trap standing inside the jail, where he could not see the gallows.
The father of the girl Lew Worden confessed he attacked saw the condemned man hanged at the county jail here today.
His daughter also had requested that she be permitted to see the execution, but her father flatly denied her entreaty. 

The Chillicothe Constitution, Chillicothe, Missouri, Thursday, March 3, 1932, page 1

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