The nineteen forties were a time in North America where segregation was very prominent, keeping the lives of white and black people as separate as possible. It was tough for many people, but in particular, it was tough for a young man by the name of George. George would find himself in the center of a murder case, and it was a young black man versus an entire system of white individuals looking dependent on him for all the wrong reasons.
As a result, George would be left without any legal defense and on the receiving end of a conviction, dealing him a death sentence at the age of only fourteen years old. This is the story of George. Stinny. My name's Ben, I'm.
Nicole, and you're listening to Wicked Angrim, a true crime podcast.
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So it's early in the morning, we barely have our wits about us. Thankfully. I have coffee. Nicole doesn't, but she's not a coffee drink.
Well green tea though, right, caffeinated.
Yeah, there's caffeine in there. Touche touche. But I think us maybe not being super high on energy today may be beneficial for this case, because I think it's one of those ones that we really need to like, let's sink in on what the fuck happened here?
Yeah? You did? This is one that you mentioned a bit to me about.
It's like well, I think I only really told her what was said in the intro of this basically yea, and yeah, it's it's kind of fucked up. It's super shitty what happened. And it's very interesting to see where the support actually even some of the support came from for George throughout this case. But we're going to get into this. I don't want to give too much away. So you ready to just go into the story of
George Stinty. Yeah, okay, I totally am. Okay, Well, his story is fucked up, but it centers around, you know him, It centers around George Stinney. Now, George was a fourteen year old boy from a place called al Kalou, which is in South Carolina, and this story takes place. We're going back to nineteen forty.
Four, Okay, way back.
So George was just about five foot one inch tall and weighed between ninety and ninety five pounds and lived in a modest home with his family, which included his father, George Stinny Senior, his mother Amy Brown Stinny, his brother Charles, and his sisters Catherine and Amy. Now the family lived together in a company owned housing unit. Now this was
part of the working conditions where George's father worked. So he worked at a local sawmill and as such, you know, anyone who worked there got to live in like the housing units for the company. Okay, I think it's very kind of kind of similar to how it's like when you're like out doing like camp work. You know, yeah, something kind of like that. But by the sounds of it, you know, they are still in a town. It's it's just that same application. But yeah, well.
Yeah, especially to back then, wasn't it more normal right to have your work also provide your housing, I think, so, I mean that's I don't know, I kind of like that, but it probably it might not have been the best of housing too, right.
So yeah, who knows. And I mean if you lose your job, then you lose your house too, so true, which I mean for a lot of people that's the case anyways, because they just can't afford it.
Then, right.
But yeah, so the town where they live, though, Alkalou was a small working class town typical in the South during the era. Now, however, it is much different than what you're probably really picturing. It is kind of today. This had railroad tracks running right down the middle and where these tracks ran right through the town, it created a line that divided the white community from the black community.
Oh jeez, yeah, that whole segregation era, right, George and his family were living on the segregated black community side, and interaction between both neighborhoods, the white neighborhood and the black neighborhood was absolutely minimal. For example, there were separate schools, there were separate churches, there was separate shopping centers for each race. This era in history was a harsh reality of segregation that is still hard for many people to
face and understand today. The racist the segregation, it was just all rampant at the time, especially in South Carolina, Carolina and across the southern United States. So this segregation had even been legally enforced from the late nineteenth century up until the mid twentieth century and aim to uphold white dominance after slavery was was abolished. So it actually went for like a lot longer than many people are
really aware for. And yeah, I mean there's still residual stuff playing today, which is terrible, but that's unfortunately the world we're living in today.
Yeah, we've come aways, but gosh, there's always further you can go, right, Oh, that we should go.
Yeah, So African Americans were forced to endure separate but equal facilities. You know, as I mentioned all these different places being like, oh, you get a shopping center and we get a shopping center. They're separate but equal. But yeah, they were not equal. They were often very inferior in quality, and they face a lot of systemic eclusion from political as well economic and social opportunities. This whole equal thing, Yeah,
it was not equal whatsoever. So that brings us into March twenty third, nineteen forty four, eleven year old Betty June Binnaker and seven year old Mary Elma Thames set out on their bikes and so of some flowers. They're gonna go pick some flowers for the day, right, So as they rode through the town, they encountered George Stinney, you know, the fourteen year old boy that we were
just talking about, and his younger sister Amy. The girl stopped to ask the siblings if they knew where they could find may pops, which were an edible fruit from a passion flower. Now, tragically, in this conversation, in this encounter with George and his sister Amy. This this would be the last time these two girls were seen alive.
Oh Man.
Betty June Binnaker and Mary Emma Thames, both white, never returned home, sparking a massive search involving hundreds of Alkalo residents, including George Sr. George's father.
Yeah.
The next day the two girls were found. Their lifeless bodies were discovered in a water logged ditch on the backside of the tracks, on the black side of the tracks.
When they were asking about out the flowers or whatever, what side were they on.
You know, off hand or I don't know, I'm not certain. I'm going to assume they were over on the black segregated side, because I would imagine that, you know, whites would feel much more comfortable crossing that.
Line than the other way around, right right.
Yeah, So Doctor Asbury Cecil Bozard, who examined the girls, found no obvious signs of struggle, but their death had been brutal. Mary had a hole punched through her forehead into her skull and a deep cut above her right eyebrow, while Betty had sustained at least seven blows to the head, leaving the back of her skull shattered beyond recognition. Ohly shit, Yeah, it's a fucking it was a brutal one.
Yeah, and these are kids.
Yeah. So doctor Bozard concluded that the girls had been beaten with something to inflict these failed injuries, but it was unclear on exactly what was used in their murder. It is suggested by many that was a piece of blunt metal, perhaps a railroad spike, or possibly a hammer and to quote the medical examiner quote, inflicted by a blunt instrument with a round head the size about sorry about the size of a hammer.
Okay, yeah, so it probably was then.
Very well could have been, that's for sure. Or I mean you're at railway track. There's lots of times railway spikes, you know, laying around or whatever one comes loose like things like that, right, right, so yeah. The medical examiner did also investigate further into their autopsy and did not find any evidence of sexual assault, though there was reported bruising on one of the girl's genitalia, but not attributed to sexual assault. Okay, yeah, I mean maybe she like
riding bikes or something. Maybe she did a little jump, like who knows, there's a million things something that could come from maybe wrestling with a sibling she got kicked or booted, like who knows it was, but he was not attributed to sexual assault, which is important.
Yeah, that's so damn sad though, though, Like they were just going out for a ride looking for freaking flowers.
Yep, damn, I'm just out trying to find maypops, which in itself is like one of the most innocent fucking things you can think of. Yeah, and it ends in murder.
Yeah, that's just like it just makes you how your heart just like I don't almost shiver up and shiver up, shrivel up, shrivel die. Yeah.
God, Well, it's like something that's so innocent turns so dark so fast, and it's just like, why the fuck was that taken away?
Yeah?
But so now there is a bit of a problem here. Despite the circulating rumors that the girls had been visited by a very prominent white family on that day, the very day that they were murdered, the authority showed very little interest in pursuing any of the leads that might suggest this potential white perpetrator was at Las large.
Well, yeah, because that would be too hard, right.
Instead, when a witness mentioned seeing the girls speak with George, the police immediately went to his home.
That's some serious bullshit right there.
Yep. Now, George and his older brother were arrested on suspicion of murdering the girls and were taken away in handcuffs.
That is just some serious bullshit right there, yep.
Specifically because someone said I saw them talk and they.
Were literally just talking, helping them try to find some fucking flowers.
Yeah, and they were taken away in handcuffs like that.
Oh boy.
Now, after a while, George's brother was released by the police, but George, on the other hand, was held in custody. George was interrogated for hours without the presence of his parents, without the presence of legal counsel or any witnesses at all, which means it was George and the police for hours.
Which is like, is that even allowed? It's not nowadays, but like it have been then, I don't even know.
Technically would not have been.
No.
Oh so Now, the next day, on March twenty fourth, nineteen forty four, while George was still in custody, the newspaper, the wire Service as it was called, printed an article regarding the whole situation and on this article, they announced that George was arrested in relation for the murder.
Wow.
But the paper had also heard word from the police that George had made a confession in questioning and printed that as well. George Stinney was officially being charged with the murder of the two girls.
Man, that's wild, hey, Like, do they not have an innocent until proven guilty thing back then? And like the newspaper is just freaking releasing this.
Yeah, I mean I know for a fact that there was proper trials. I mean, they gave people proper trials before nineteen forty. But the fact of race just played such a big card in this. So like, oh, he's fucking guilty. And also, like, listen to this because according to a handwritten statement made by the arresting officer, HS Newman, So this is where the big thing comes in. They're taking this officer's word for it. He stated, quote, 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 fifteen inches where he said he put it in a ditch about six feet from the bicycles. So this officer is claiming George confessed and showed him where the murder weapon was. However, he did not have a murder weapon. No one witnessed this confession. It's just this officer's statement.
Wow, hey, which is.
A white officer versus a black kid?
Oh my gosh. Okay, yeah, that is not all right.
No, So during all this, while George was being held, he was not allowed to see his parents, and they said until after the trial and any convictions that were to follow as well. They were holding him and that was that.
And he's like fourteen fourteen, So they're just like pushing a big old easy button really instead of drewing their job.
One hundred percent. And they're doing that because they're fucking racist pieces of shit. Yeah yeah wow. So, now, as a result of the murders and the subsequent arrest of George, his father, George Senior, was fired from his job at the sawmill.
Oh my gosh.
Course the entire family to vacate their company provided house in Alkalou. Now I'm not too sure what they did after this, but as far as I can guess, my best guess is that they did have to actually flee Alkalou because there was a lot of issues with this case and threats and everything. Well, yeah, so they were not even around to provide support for George if it was even granted. But it wasn't even granted, you know, so they had to leave for their own safety. Now,
don't get me wrong, they were coming back. They were like around when they needed to be. It was just like, we can't be living here or find another house here. We got to go like next town overs.
Well, yeah, the town wouldn't have allowed them to.
No, And actually, like George was, they had to be careful with George too, because there's a lot of issues, like they're concerned that people were going to like lynch them and just take justice into their own hands sort of thing. Oh okay, they're like, no, we gotta take
care of it, not you guys. Right. So, during his eighty one day confinement and brief trial, which we'll talk about here in a bit, George wasn't able to receive any support and that includes, like I said, already with his family, but it goes beyond that, which again in the trial we will touch on. But he was detained in the jail in Columbia, South Carolina, about fifty miles away and that's where they actually held him because of the threat of the lynching, so they couldn't even hold
him in the town either. Okay, So this isolation only made the whole tragedy of George's ordeal worse for him, as he was reportedly faced he faced this whole process without any legal guidance, like he had legal defense, but he didn't. We'll get into it. So the whole legal process against George moved forward with a really fast pace, beginning just a month after his arrest. On April twenty fourth, nineteen forty four, the jury selection and trial were completed
in a single day. George was represented by a man named Charles Plowden, a court appointed attorney who just so happened to be a tax commissioner running for local office.
Okay, which says, what, wow, do you want to go ahead and take your thoughts on that or do you want me to say it? You say it.
He wants to be popular with the public, so he is going to just do what the public wants because he's like, hey, my motivation is basically saying that I want to stay in the good graces of the white majority here because I'm pretty sure blacks at the time weren't even allowed to fucking vote.
Holy shit. Hey, so he's all like.
I'm gonna please the white folk and I'm gonna yeah, holy.
This this case is just like gonna break my fucking heart. This is brutal.
Oh, it's fucked. It is fucked. So the attorney, Charles Plowden, did not contest the testimony of the three officers who actually went and stood try and stood up on stand during the trial. And these officers claimed that George had confessed to the murders of Betty June Minaker and Mary Emma Thames.
But they had it doesn't seem like they probably had a lick of evidence.
No, they had no proof nothing. It was just their word. And even if he did confess, you're telling me, it's not gonna be coerced from being in a fucking locked up room.
With officers for oh yeah, like who knows what the fuck they were doing to him exactly. Now.
Furthermore, this fucking plowed in douchebag. He didn't even address the inconsistencies in the prosecution's case that were present, which were two conflicting versions of George's supposed confession. One account, George allegedly killed the girls in self defense after they attacked him when he tried to assist one of them that had fallen in the ditch. And then the other version of the confession, George was said to have followed
the girls, first attacking Mary and then returning to attack Betty. Okay, so on these alleged confessions, there's not even consistency in the confessions.
Wow, but it doesn't even matter really.
Yeah, and this fucking plowed and douche didn't even fucking speak up on that shit. He's just like me whatever.
Well, yeah, because he's not there, he like his intention is not to help George whatsoever.
No, his intention is probably to make him fucking go down.
Yeah.
There was no written or signed confession from George. There was only evidence of a confession. A sorry. The only evidence of a confession came from a statement made by the officer earlier, which was the one who who was the arresting officer, said that he found he led me to the murder weapon and all this sort of shit.
It was just the written statement from the officer. That's the only piece of evidence of any confession that ever came forward, which was not even a piece of evidence at all, because I can easily write on a piece of paper, Nicole just confess that I'm the sexiest man alive. And you're like, no, Channing Tatum clearly, Henry Cavill like.
What the fuck?
But like you see what I mean though, right, Like, just because you write something down doesn't mean fuck all.
No, yeah, I mean, anyone can write whatever the fuck they want exactly.
So, despite these glaring issues, the defense attorney did not challenge the validity of the alleged confessions or anything else at all for that matter. The prosecution also presented testimony of three witnesses, Reverend Francis Bastin, who was one the one who actually discovered the bodies of the two girls,
along with the two doctors who conducted the post mortem examination. Now, despite the examiner, as I already mentioned, saying there was no sexual assault that occurred, the court decided they would permit the discussion of the possibility of rape based on the bruising mentioned in the report that was found. Oh boy, so the fucking dude. The medical examiners like, she was not raped.
But the court now they're like, well maybe she was.
Yeah, They're like, well, there was a bruise you found, let's discuss the possibility of George raping her, Like, are you fucking kidding?
Oh my gosh, okay, I'm just like literally all I can think about is just like George sitting there like no support whatsoever, and just like I don't even know what would be going through his mind because he's so young, lady, he's a kid.
Well from his perspective. It gets worse here. I'll touch on it in just one second, because yeah, he had no one in the court with him, even his defense. His family wasn't present, but we'll get into that shortly. So his attorney didn't call a single witness to stand. He also did not cross examine any of those brought by the prosecutions. Yeah, he did nothing, did nothing, not even a single question of cross examination.
Nothing.
The entire presentation of the case lasted just two and a half hours, and at that time George was left quite literally defenseless. So, as I mentioned, we're going to touch on how his perspective was in that courtroom. To make matters even worse for fourteen year old George, the courtroom was filled with over one thousand white spectators, while black citizens, including his own family, were barred from attention.
Allowed in like, so he was literally the only person of color in there.
Correct, because this also extended to the jury as well, which was composed entirely of white individuals, which was common for the era.
Right, Holy, you gotta be fucking me.
You have one colored fourteen year.
Old, wow, wow, wow.
With over a thousand people of a different color who are racist as fuck coming after you, without any evidence, without any defense, with a very one sided fucking jury, and given the intense fucking racist time that they were in, it's clear that George was denied whatsoever a fair trial, not even fucking close.
No, like they shouldn't even bother.
No, it was basically a fucking puppet show for their own fucking egos.
But meanwhile, I mean, meanwhile, there's someone who actually did this crime to these two girls, I'm assuming right, just running probably in there, probably in there, oh, which is just so disgusting, Like that means you want to vomit.
Yep. So, the jury of as I mentioned, all white individuals, took less than ten minutes to deliberate, course they did, before they found George guilty of the murders of the two girls. As a result, Judge Philip H. Stole swiftly sentenced George to death by electrocution, bringing a devastating end to these fucked up proceedings.
But everyone was probably just like stoked everyone in there. I wrote this probably.
Now as if this whole court preceding situation the trial wasn't bad enough to add to the injustice. There were no transcripts that exist of the trial, leaving no official record to confirm whether the trial was conducted fairly or based on sufficient evidence.
Well, because it wasn't exactly.
So they made sure there was no fucking transcript up.
Yeah, Like, I don't even quite understand the fucking point of any of this shit, as I say it, just stroking their own fucking ego. Wow, Okay, just picture.
Like a fucking uh some officer or whatever who's all like, yeah, I got him, Yeah, I caught him right away. He confessed to me, I found the fucking murder weapon. Yeah, I saw the case.
You know. Well, I mean people are probably also you know, scared, right because of this brutal thing happening at the in their community or town or whatever, and so they're just wanting to like as quickly as possible to ease people's mind. I guess in the you know, easiest way possible.
Yeah, for sure that it's.
Not gonna happen again. We have the person like they're gonna pay for this.
Yeah. So without any of the fucking documentation though, like, without any transcript from the trial, it would have been extremely easy to have appealed the case, right, Yeah, So if the defense team would have appealed, it would have been a fucking slam dunk because of there's no proof of any evidence. There's no proof of a fair trial. There's no proof of anything.
Yeah. But who would have done that, right.
Not George's attorney, because he didn't for appeal.
Yeah, he didn't do shit at all.
No, he did not do a fucking thing. I quite literally left George to face this defenseless. He's supposed to be the fucking defense and he left him defenseless.
Hmmm, and probably got paid doing it too, right.
Yeah, So the black community was left in shock and disbelief. George's family, along with the local churches and the NAACP, which is a National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, appealed for clemency, which is a pardon, arguing that his age should be taken into account. Now, interestingly enough, many of the pleas for this pardon actually did come from
white people, white women from South Carolina. Some of the pleas included expressions of white supremacy, but they still express discomfort with the idea of executing someone so fucking young. So you even have white supremists saying he needs a pardon he's a kid.
Yeah, yeah, So that.
Shows how fucked like you literally have a situation where it's it's like a mob mentality where they just fucking saw Red wanted to take him down, and that's what they did. So yeah, like they literally had these people sending in letters, but they didn't care. They just saw.
Yeah, the decision was already made. It was like it was made, I mean the day after the murders, So clearly there was like there would have been absolutely no time to do anything of like finding, you know, any sort of proof that he actually did this.
The decision was made on the day of the murders because they ran the article.
The day after, Okay, yea, so.
It was already made the day of Holy Holy they arrested him that same fucking day.
What a disservice. Yeah, that is unreal.
So it seems that despite the racism of the era, there were a significant number of white visuals who spoke out against his conviction and they felt it was unjust. But however, there was also the strong contingent of people urging the governor to allow the execution to proceed as well. There's both sides to the coin. Now, there is a letter from Olin D. Johnson, who was the governor when he wrote to a wrote a response to one of the appeals for pardon, and I think it shows where
he sided on with this debate. So in that letter he says this quote, I have just talked with the officer who made the arrest in the case. It may be interesting for you to know that Stinny killed the smaller girl to rape the larger one. Then he killed the larger girl and raped her dead body. Twenty minutes later he returned and attempted to rape her again, but her body was too cold. All of this he admitted himself.
The fuck yeah, he did not admit shit. The examiner said there was no fucking rape like and this is what the fucking the governor is saying happened.
H wow, Okay, like who who is? I don't know? That just just such a story.
Yeah, it's just more claims with no facts to back anything up.
Meanwhile, he George was just with his brother the whole time, right, I'm sure And they probably never asked asked him anything.
Probably not so. Leading up to the day of George's execution, George was only allowed to see his parents one time. Other than that, he was forced to face all of this on his own, and on Friday, June sixteenth, nineteen forty four, at seven thirty a m. George was led out of his cell at fourteen years old into a
room with an electric chair sitting in the middle. Officers seated him on the chair and began preparing him, but they found he was too small for the chair given his age, so they apparently used a Bible as a booster seat to ensure he was seated properly. He was then restrained by his arms, his legs, and body, strapping him into the chair. An officer asked George if he had any last words to say before the execution took place. George looked at the officer and kept his emotions under
control as best he could, and with respect. He shook his head and said, no, sir. The executioner pulled a strap from the chair's head piece and placed it over George's chin and mouth. In this moment, George was no longer able to keep his composure, and the young man broke out into tears as the final piece was being strapped onto him. Finally, a face mask was placed over his face, which again was too big. Now though no one could see his expression, you could still hear his
crying echoing through the room. Executioner was given to go ahead, and the electricity was finally applied to George. The mask that was too big for him apparently fell off. It slipped from his face, and the mix of pain from the lethal electricity that was flowing through him and tears streaming from his eyes was the last bit of emotion anyone saw on him. He was soon pronounced dead. Holy shit,
there are I do want to say this. There are, however, some who contest that the book he sat on and the masks slipping off his face were rumors, but either way, the emotions were high. There are pictures of him being strapped in with tears streaming down his face that were taken in those moments and he lost his life all as a result of this unfair trial.
Yeah, and then to have the opportunity to speak and just and just say like no, still in like being respectful, you know, yeap, Oh my gosh, like he just knew that there was nothing that he could do.
Yeah. George's body would be buried in an unmarked grave at the Cavalry Baptist Church cemetery in Lee County, South Carolina.
So still just completely disrespecting him.
Yeah. Now, over the decades of time passing and the story of George Stinny going down in history as a case of an innocent boy being killed due to a racist era, while the real killer potentially walked free as time passed on. Eventually, in two thousand and four, George Fearson, a local historian who grew up in Alkalou, started researching the case after reading a newspaper article about it. His work gained the attention of South Carolina lawyer Steve Mackenzie
and Matt Burgers. Together, they and several others who began joining along the way contributed countless hours of research and review of historical documents and found witnesses and evidence to assist in exonerating George Stinney's name. As a result of their hard work. In twenty fourteen, efforts to overturn the conviction gained momentum with support from several groups and pro bono lawyers. They appealed to the South Carolina Pardon and Parole Board and filed a motion for a new trial.
The legal team urged that George was convicted without any solid evidence. His alleged confession was unrecorded, was unsigned, and likely coerced if it even happened at all. Moreover, his defense attorney failed to call witnesses who could have proven
his innocence or preserved his right to appeal. New evidence emerged, including testimonies from George's siblings who claimed that he was with them at the time of the murders, and an affidavit suggesting that the girls might have been killed elsewhere and then dumped at the tracks.
Holy shit, and this is just done.
This is done like in the two thousands.
Yeah, like twenty fourteen, and he was convicted like nineteen forty four.
Yep.
And they're able to like figure this out that long, like that, with that much time passing, yep, Like not easily but.
Imagine what they could have fucking done if they investigated at the time. Now, a fellow inmate also testified. This fellow in mate of George at the time testified that George maintained his innocence while behind bars, and that George said he was forced to confess thanks to the work of so many people and the retrial on George Stinney.
On December sixteenth, twenty fourteen, seventy years after he had been convicted and killed, Judge Carmen Mullin overturned George's conviction, ruling that he had not received a fair trial and that his rights had been violated, and ruled George Stinney innocent.
Wow, like he would have been he could have still been alive eighty four.
She concluded that executing a fourteen year old was cruel and unusual punishment and criticized the legal process that led to his conviction, stating that it was that little was done to protect him or his life at all.
I mean, this is great, I guess, but it's just like, what's the point at this, Like it's a little too late, you know, it is.
It is it's at least clearing his name legally but it's yeah, it's still so messed so George's exoneration. Since his exoneration, I should say sorry, speculation has emerged around who the individual truly was behind the murders. So man by the name of George Washington Burke Junior, not George Washington the freaking President, but George Washington Burke Junior, the son of a wealthy white businessman, came into the picture
as a possible suspect. Now. He died in nineteen forty seven, just to few years after the murders, at the age of twenty nine. Now, Apparently, George's mother briefly worked for the Burke family, and according to his sister, their mother once mentioned that Burke Senior made unwanted advances towards her, prompting their father to insist she stopped working for them. Okay, It was rumored that the Burke boys actually framed George
for the murders because of this incident. Notably, Burke Senior led the initial search for the girls, owned the land where the bodies were found, Oh my God, and was the foreman of the grand jury that convicted George, raising suspicions that he may have deflected blame. Oh yeah, son, so you mentioned that fucking murderer may have very well been in the courtroom.
Yeah, he had a big part in the courtroom.
You betcha. Now, Two elderly women from alkalou recalled that Burke Junior had a reputation as a womanizer as well, and was known for committing theft without facing consequences. Sonia Eddie Williamson, a white Alkali resident who became close with George's sister, conducted her own investigation and learned that Wayne
Burke Burke Junior's son. So it would be the Burke senior's grandson that his grandmother had allegedly told his father, sorry, allegedly told that his father had picked up the girls in his lumber truck on the day they were murdered. So, I mean it is word through the grapevine, but allegedly Burke Junior picked up the girls in his lumber truck the day they were murdered.
Meaning like that. He like, oh, man, okay, this is kind of confusing.
It is it is because there's there's there's a lot of through the grapevine stuff. Yeah, we have seventy years of history, so it's like, well, I heard this, I.
Was yeah, exactly.
Okay. So Sonya was a Alkalou resident who he came friends with George's sister over the years. Okay, Okay, she conducted a little bit of her own quasi investigation. Now, she learned from Wayne Burke. Okay, who is Burke Junior's son. Okay, okay, so grandson. She learned from grandson that his grandmother. So the guy who was the senior, you know, the grandfather. Whatever she learned, he learned from the grandmother that Burke Junior,
which is his dad. Yeah, he learned that Burke Junior had allegedly picked the girls up the day they were murdered in his truck.
But does that mean that he did did it?
No, Okay, doesn't mean he did it, but it does mean that there was a witness saying he was with the girls the day they were murdered.
Right, holy shit, holy shit? Oh man, Okay, Now.
I do want to clarify this is through the grapefie. There's no again, there's no evidence to say.
They didn't do their job at the time.
Yeah so, but I mean at the time, if they questioned the right people, they might have had a fucking witness statement. Right.
Yeah.
So however, Wayne Burke later denied making this statement and maintained his belief that George was guilty. Oh of course, yeah, so he retracted that statement.
Well yeah, duh, Yeah, holy frig I know it's a whole shit, So no shit now.
Finally, lawyers for the Stinny family have mentioned rumors of a deathbed confession from a member of a prominent white family, though this has never been confirmed or said anything about who this individual was.
Huh so it could have even been like those people potentially.
Could have been, but it's been kept quiet because there's no evidence to support it. And that is the story of George Stinney.
Well, you know what, if that is true and this was like a death but confession, I hope that it just like haunted them for like their whole life and they didn't even get to enjoy their their life to the fullest.
If they're doing a deathbed confession, there's a good chance that they probably fucking haunted them.
Yeah, Like I hope it just like ate them alive, really, because that is just like I don't even know how you could live your life knowing that you just like killed an innocent fourteen year old.
Really, I know. So this is a uh, colorized image of George Stinny being.
Uh no, I don't know if I want to see that. No, you're doing.
It a do you not want to see it?
I don't know. My heart's already broken, I guess, So what else could it do?
Fair enough? Well, I don't know if this is actually taken in color. It was colorized, but it is a real image of George Stinny. Oh, hold on, that's there, it is there. No, that's him being strapped into the chair.
Oh my gosh no, no, yeah, I really, oh my god, my heart. I did not need to see that. Holy shit, holy shit. That is so fucking sad, I know. Wow.
And you can see he's keeping his composure, like look right here, he's keeping his composure, and the last moments of this final chin strap coming.
On, that's oh well, like yeah, it's almost like you probably had like the tiniest bit of hope that maybe, like maybe something at the last minute would change, you know, and then oh my gosh, I can't, I can't. That is so fucked holy holy holy oh.
So in this caption here, actually, I do know, there's a lot of references in movies and stuff to George Stinney and stuff and such. I didn't research just one, but on this this post a long togo with this this image that I just pulled up, it does say that Stephen King was inspired by this case to write his book The Green Mile, which was taken to theaters nineteen ninety nine.
So oh, and the image is from the movie.
Oh, image is from movie.
Okay, so maybe they don't actually have but still.
Okay, maybe I was bamboozled with that image. But okay, really quick, I'm interjecting into our podcast here for something. I did look into this image. It's not from Green Mile. I didn't think so, because I don't ever remember there being a kid in an electric chair in Green Mile. But it is from some sort of movie. So the
image is fake. It is from a movie. I can't identify which movie yet, I haven't been able to find it, but there are some movies out there regarding George and his story, so I think this one's a fairly older one, and it's definitely not the top of the list. But it is a false image. Okay, back to the podcast.
I mean, yeah, it's like that little kid is acting like, very well, I'm sure that's exactly how it basically went down.
Yeah, no, that kid's that's some fucking phenomenal acting then because it fooled me. Okay, so that is a false fied image, I guess.
But still, well yeah, I mean it's it's representing I'm sure exactly what happened.
Yeah, so that is the case of George Stinny, and it just goes to show the extent of I think people were capable of just because of skin color.
Have you watched that movie The Green Mile.
I have seen The Green Mile. It's been a long time.
Huh.
Yeah, I don't recognize this scene, that's for sure.
Well it might not have, like you didn't probably know the whole maybe the whole story or whatever, right, I don't know.
Maybe because I know I was a kid when I seen that movie. Yeah, I can picture like certain certain things off the top of my head and stuff, but like I don't even really remember the storyline or nothing.
So well, we can maybe add that to the list. We have to watch that movie. We have another movie because I just realized the other day that Pirates still exists, and here's a movie that I want to watch.
Yeah, it's that, was it, Captain Phillip or whatever? Yeah, I think that's the movie.
I was just like shook. I don't know why, but my algorithm has like been showing me a bunch of pirate ship shit lately. Pirate ship shit, pirate shit, and yeah, I was like, I was just like, wow, Ben, like, pirates still exist. You were very aware, but I was not.
Yeah, No, pirates are a real thing. Still.
Oh this world is just scary. Hey.
Yeah, So anyways, thank you guys for being here. Apparently we're gonna go watch The Green Mile and Captain Philip. We thank you guys being here. You guys are incredible. Because of your support, we actually get to keep this show going. We are just an indie podcast. No, no one owns us. It's us. That's it. So not just I hate that who else is it?
Well? I mean like I hate when people are like, I'm just a mom or I'm just this, Like the word just out. We're an indie podcast. We rule you're you're a mom. I think you're awesome.
I think just shows limitations. I don't think personally, I don't think.
Just as No, I've always been that way, like because lots of times, I'll be like, oh, what do you do when they're like, oh, I'm just like a stay at home mom or something, and I'm like, know that you're not just you are like an awesome stay at home mom. I don't know. I've always been like that word triggers me for some reason.
Okay, we're about to go in a five minute discussion with this. No, no, because I want to break this down because for me, if someone says it's like I'm just a mom, it's like there's two ways you can go about it. It's like, oh, I'm nothing special, I'm just a mom, which I see is what you're saying, and yeah, it's kind of negative or there's a connotation of I'm just a mom. It's like I have I am a mother and that's my focus and I want
to do the best I can as a mother. I don't worry about anything else outside that.
I don't know. I've always viewed it as it's sort of like I always usually correct people because I'm like, I feel like it just sounds like you're diminishing what you're doing.
Okay, well, how's this. We are an indie podcast who does not rely on anyone else. It's just us.
Yeah, okay, better, I guess does that work? Yeah, it's a bit better.
Okay, Well it is only us. Yeah, it's only us who produce research and everything to do with the show. So anything you can do to support us, it means the world. It helps our show grow. Whether it be listen to the end of us going off on tangents about the word just, whether it be giving us a review, whether it's you know, following or commenting or messaging us, it all helps. So thank you very much for being here.
Well yeah and listening to this and given a big like I don't know, I don't know, how could you, like just a good vibes or like heartfelt send off to George. I guess, I don't know. Like I feel so bad. I wish I could do something.
I don't think there's anything we can do, I know, other than just try not to fucking treat people because they're differently, because they're different, like it's a fucking human god.
Hell yeah, different than you. Because they're not different, they're just different than you.
Yeah that's right. Well, I mean everyone's different.
Yeah, I'm fucking real different.
You're different than me. I'm different than you. If you're listening. You're different than me and I'm different than you. That's not bad, it's just differences. Yeah, but we're all people, we're all humans, we're all just trying to fucking make it in this world. And yeah, so try not to be douchebags like those who were convicting and looking at George in the way he was, because that's just grotesque, that's wrong. It makes me sick. But yeah, thank you for being here, and until until
Next time, Until next time, stay wicked.