Lathe Hembree (Execution of)

Lathe Hembree was hanged on July 25, 1902, at Center Point (Howard County) for a murder he denied committing. He was one of six men executed on the same date in Arkansas.

On March 1, 1900, W. M. Willis, an inspector and paymaster for the Hammond-Signor Tie Company, was found shot to death on the Pee Gee Road five miles south of Mena (Polk County). Circumstantial evidence led investigators to arrest Lathe Hembree, a white man, for the crime. He was tried in Mena and convicted of first-degree murder on March 17 after the jury deliberated “only one hour.” He was sentenced to hang on May 18.

Hembree’s lawyers appealed the conviction, and the Arkansas Supreme Court delayed the execution, eventually remanding the case for a new trial “on account of a technicality in the reading of the indictment he was found guilty upon.” The Arkansas Democrat reported that “Hembree has another fighting chance for his neck.”

The trial was scheduled for September 1900 but was delayed until March 1901 because of missing paperwork. Hembree was taken to the state penitentiary in Little Rock (Pulaski County) “for safe keeping” but was returned to the Polk County jail as his trial neared. He escaped from there on March 8, 1901, but was captured on April 7 by a pair of turkey hunters in the mountains seven miles northeast of Mena; he was found sleeping under a tree.

Hembree was granted a change of venue to Howard County for his new trial and, on February 6, 1902, was convicted of killing Willis “for the money he had on his person,” with the Pine Bluff Daily Graphic noting that “it evidently did not require very much time to arrive at a conclusion.” Hembree reportedly told the court, “You have the wrong man.”

He was sentenced to hang on March 28, 1902, but Associate Supreme Court Justice James E. Riddick granted him an appeal “on the ground that the evidence against him was almost wholly circumstantial.” The court apparently upheld the conviction, however, and on July 9, 1902, Governor Jeff Davis set July 25 as the date for both Hembree and convicted murderer Sy Tanner of St. Francis County to hang.

On the morning of July 25, Hembree was allowed to address the crowd arriving for his execution from the upper porch of the courthouse. The condemned man, “protesting his innocence to the last,” claimed that his conviction was the “result of prejudice, jealousy and perjured testimony,” and that the trial judge refused to allow “testimony favorable to him.”

The Nashville News wrote that “Hembree’s demeanor was calm and his nerve remained good to the end.” The trap door of the gallows opened at 11:05 a.m., and he was declared dead twenty-two minutes later. The Democrat wrote: “Today a long criminal case is concluded at the end of a rope.”

In addition to Hembree and Tanner, four other men would also hang in Arkansas on July 25, 1902—James Kitts in Desha County, Dee Noland and Tom Simms in Hempstead County, and Dave McWhorter in Crawford County.

For additional information:
“Court Gossip.” Arkansas Democrat, March 25, 1902, p. 7.

“Found in Irons Asleep Under a Tree.” Pine Bluff Daily Graphic, April 9, 1901, p. 4.

“Hembree Hangs.” Pine Bluff Daily Graphic, February 10, 1902, p. 5.

“Lathe Hembree.” Nashville News, July 26, 1902, pp. 1, 3.

“Lathe Hembree’s Case.” Arkansas Democrat, July 25, 1900, p. 3.

“Murderer Captured.” Arkansas City [Kansas] Daily Traveler, April 8, 1901, p. 8.

“Over the State.” Arkansas Gazette, May 23, 1900, p. 6.

“Six Swing to Eternity in Arkansas Today to Expiate Foul Murder.” Arkansas Democrat, July 25, 1902, pp. 1, 3.

“State House.” Arkansas Democrat, July 9, 1902, p. 3.

“Swift Justice.” Southern Standard, April 5, 1900, p. 1.

“Time Draws Near.” Nashville News, March 1, 1902, p. 1.

Mark K. Christ
Central Arkansas Library System