It’s June 16th, 1944. Inside the South Carolina State Penitentiary, a corrections officer is preparing to take an inmate on the long walk to an old rickety chair where electricity will be used to put this inmate to death. But that old rickety chair is too big for this inmate. The harness to the chair is too big because that inmate is too small.

 His pants are too small because he’s only 95 lbs because he’s just a boy. That inmate is 14 years old. So, they do something. They take a holy Bible and place it on the chair so that the boy can fit in the chair and the electricity can properly do its job. That boy’s name is George Stenny Jr. And in a few moments, the state of South Carolina will execute him for a crime that he did not commit.

 And he’d become the youngest person put to death in the United States in the 20th century. But here’s something you need to know before we go any further. This episode isn’t just about what happened to George Stenny. It’s also about why this happened to George Stenny. It’s about who could have really committed the crime that George was accused of.

 and how the state failed this child at every turn and made sure that no one ever found out the truth. It’s how Jim Crow wasn’t just about separating water fountains and restrooms. It’s how Jim Crow manufactured verdicts and made it so that black lives were expendable no matter how young. I’m Andre and this is Redacted History.

 In order to fully understand this story, you need to understand three things. One, Jim Crow. The world that made this miscarriage of justice possible. The world that made it possible for a little black boy to be executed. The Jim Crow South is a time period in American history where a 14-year-old child could be brutally executed, not by a mob, but by the state, by law, simply because he was black.

 Number two is the trial that George underwent. If a trial is what you want to call it, I call it Jim Crow justice. And number three, the investigation that South Carolina never did. The witnesses that were never called, the legal defense that George never got, and the suspect that was never investigated. Alcaloo, South Carolina, 1944. Population about 700.

 A town that in 1944 was deeply Jim Crow and whose population in 2026 now sits under 500 people. This is a small town that covers less than five total square miles. And in 1944, right down the middle was a set of train tracks that separated the white people from the black people. Alcaloo is a city that was created for a specific reason, lumber and labor.

 The Alderman Lumber Company established Alcaloo as a mill town in the late 1800s. In the 20th century, if you lived in Alcaloo, you worked for the mill and were paid with metal coins stamped with an A. These coins could be used by employees at the company store where they could purchase essentials, groceries, household items.

 And like I said, the town was bisected by a set of train tracks. Whites on one side, blacks on the other. And one company owned all of it. And the one thing that you need to understand about Alkalu is although it was a small town, it operated like everywhere else in South Carolina in 1944. Black people had no rights.

 They were separated in public facilities, couldn’t serve on juries, were threatened if they were trying to vote, and were often killed indiscriminately and unjustly. George Junius Stenny Jr. was born on October 21st, 1929 in Pinewood, South Carolina and raised in Alcaloo and his life functioned like any other black child there.

 His father worked at the mill that owned everything, including their street and their school. The mill basically owned their lives. In March of 1944, where this story takes place, George is 14 years old. He’s a normal kid. Goes to the school on the black side of the tracks. And by all accounts from people that knew him, he was quiet.

He was reserved. He was a kid. He was very ordinary. But in 1944, Alkaloo, South Carolina, ordinary wasn’t enough to protect him. On the afternoon of March 24th, 1944, two young white girls, 11-year-old Betty June Baker and 8-year-old Mary Emma Thains, leave their homes on their bikes in search of May Pops, a wild flower that grows near the drainage ditches and the railroad tracks at the edge of town. Around 5:00 p.m.

, the girls encounter George and his younger sister Amy near the tracks and ask them about the flowers. A normal exchange by all accounts, just some kids talking. But this unfortunately was the last time those girls were ever seen alive. When the girls never returned home, a search party was immediately established and George and his father were a part of the search party.

 And this is when George disclosed that he and his sister had seen the girls before they were killed. George probably thought that he was helping. The bodies of Betty June Baker and Mary Emma Thames were found the next morning. It was a brutal scene to say the least. They were beaten to death and the cause of death was blunt force trauma.

 The suspected murder weapon was a railroad spike or some type of heavy blunt object. The weapon was never discovered and never found in anyone’s possession. Due to his being linked to being one of the last people that saw these girls alive, George was promptly arrested, taken to a jail in Sumpter County, 50 miles away from his family, and interrogated by several police officers.

14 years old, with no parents or legal representation present, a blatant violation of his constitutional rights. There was no weapon, no blood, no fingerprints or DNA that linked George to the murder. But the police said that George confessed to the murders anyway, even though no physical evidence that confirms his confession was ever produced.

 No written statement, no recording, nothing. Just the words of the white authorities against the words of a black kid. Who do you think was believed? That was the entire case that law enforcement had against George. Literally just a confession. No consideration that he was 14 years old, weighed less than 100 pounds, and the likelihood that he was able to commit such a physical crime didn’t even make sense.

 No witnesses, no statements that could speak to George’s true character. Nothing, just a confession. This confession in Sumpter County had an immediate effect on the Stenny family 50 miles away back in Alcaloo. George’s father was forced to leave his job at the mill and the Stenny family had to leave town because there was talk that a black kid murdered two white girls and justice needed to be served and the way that things were done was that justice would be served by going to the Stenny family house and lynching them.

 So the Stenny family did the only thing that they thought they could do and they fled. The Stingy family could not return and would not be permitted to attend George’s trial. Their lives were ruined before a verdict was ever even reached. On March 26th, 1944, a mob attempted to storm the jail where they thought George was being held so that they could kidnap and lynch him.

 This was a very common practice in the Jim Crow era. Black people in jail awaiting trial for a crime would sometimes be kidnapped from the jail and lynched. No trial, no verdict, just a tree. George had been moved to another jail for holding, so he was not lynched that night. George’s trial, if you want to call it a trial, would start on April 24th, 1944.

 The entire trial, including jury selection, took place on the same day. There were no black people allowed in the courthouse. No black people allowed on the jury, but over 1,000 white people showed up, including the all-white judge and jury. George was appointed a lawyer by the court, a tax lawyer named Charles Plowen, who had political aspirations, surprise, surprise, and every reason to make sure he didn’t give George a fair defense.

 Charles did not question the three police officers who interrogated George and got his confession. He did not call any witnesses. He also did not challenge the two stories that the prosecution presented. In one scenario, George attacked the girls. They fought back and he killed them in self-defense. In the other scenario, George followed the girls with murderous intent and committed these murders premeditated.

The trial lasted about 2 and 1/2 hours. The jury deliberated for 10 minutes and came back with their verdict. Guilty. Judge Philip Stole gave the proposed punishment of death by electrocution. The trial has no transcript and George’s defense never filed an appeal. 2 hours and 30 minutes.

 That’s how much George Stinny’s life was worth. That’s how long it took the state of South Carolina to decide to execute a child. Now, here’s the question that South Carolina never answered. Not in 1944 and not in 2014. If George Stenny didn’t kill those girls, then who did? Let’s talk about it. Let’s start with what we do know.

 George Stenny was about 5’1 and a little over 90 lb. The injuries that Betty June and Mary Emma sustained were consistent with strong physical blows. Forensic scientists and experts have all come to the same conclusion. There is no way this crime could have been committed by someone as small as George. And there’s also evidence that’s been presented that the girls might not have even been killed in that drainage ditch.

They could have been killed somewhere else and then their bodies disposed there. How is a 5’1 90 lb 14-year-old doing all of that? According to researchers who have tackled the case pre204, accounts from Alcaloo community members spanning decades say that during the day of the murders, they saw a tall adult white man near the drainage ditch where the girl’s bodies were found.

 This individual reportedly made confessions in the later years of his life that he was the one who committed the murders, but we’ll never know. Also, there’s the matter of Amy Stenny, George’s 8-year-old sister, who was with him when he saw the girls going to look for flowers. Amy walked home with George that day.

 Amy maintained until the day that she died, including in 2014, that my brother did not kill those girls. And if you think about it, Amy was perhaps the most pivotal witness that the defense could have called to the stand. But of course, she never was. But there was one person who could have saved George Stenny’s life. South Carolina Governor Olan D. Johnston.

 Olan Johnston was governor of South Carolina from 1943 to 1945, four years before Strong Thurman. He was a southern Democrat whose main goal throughout his political career was white southern solidarity. He would go on to become a United States senator for 20 years. And in modern day, he has South Carolina buildings named after him.

 In 1944, Olan had a chance to go down in history for another reason. The NAACP pleaded with Governor Johnston to spare George Tenny’s life, citing his age as a huge mitigating factor. They cited a similar and recent case where a 16-year-old white boy from Parish Island was given a 20-year sentence for murder and rape.

 They referenced the fact that black men were currently dying for the United States overseas in World War II. Why kill another? Olan Johnston wrote back to a disgruntled constituent and said, “It may be interesting for you to know.” He wrote that Stenny killed the smaller girl to rape the larger one. Then he killed the larger girl and raped her dead body.

 20 minutes later, he returned and attempted to rape her again, but her body was too cold. All of this he admitted himself. That was Olan Johnston’s opinion. He did not issue a stay. Did not issue a reopening of the investigation or re-examining of the evidence. He didn’t care. He thought that George Stenny should be executed. His mind was made up a long time ago.

Now, it’s time to return to that old rickety chair. June 16th, 1944, 7:30 p.m. George had been in custody for over 80 days. His parents never got to see him. His sister Amy, who was with him the day he saw those girls, didn’t get to see him. His other siblings didn’t get to see him. George would spend his final hours in his cell reading the Bible, the same Bible that they’d used to kill him.

 George walked to the chair at 7:30 and would become the youngest person to ever sit in it. He climbed onto the chair and the straps to hold his head and arms were too big. His feet dangled from the chair and the Bible was used to prop him up. When the electrical current passed through his body, the mask slipped from his face when the first of 2400 volts of electricity began to course through his body, revealing a face full of tears to the audience as he was murdered. George Stenny Jr.

 was buried in an unmarked grave. George’s execution made zero national headlines. For one, he was black. And for two, the American people were too focused on World War II and the Normandy invasion. So George Steny was executed in 1944. But his conviction was eventually vacated in 2014. That’s 70 years that the state of South Carolina maintained that what they did to George Stenny was the just and legal thing to do.

 In 2014, the case was re-examined due to the continued fight from the Stenny family, most notably George’s siblings. George Carmen Mullen of the 14th Judicial Circuit in South Carolina heard testimonies from three of George’s surviving siblings and other witnesses that provided alibis that provided that proved George could not have possibly committed those murders.

 Judge Mullen vacated George’s conviction and said this. No one can justify a 14-year-old child being charged, tried, convicted, and executed in some 80 days. Summarizing those events, she said, “In essence, not much was done for this child when his life lay in the balance.” Judge Mullen said that George’s fifth and 14th amendment rights were violated.

and she pointed out the sizable power differential between his position as a 14-year-old black male apprehended and questioned by white uniformed law enforcement in a small segregated miltown in South Carolina. George’s cellmate, Wilfford Johnny Hunter, came forward and said that George told him in jail that he didn’t kill those girls and that the police made him say those things.

 George’s sister said, “My mother cried and prayed. We wanted the truth to come out. But sometimes when you don’t have the means and the money, you accept things for what they are. In those days, when you were white, you were right. When you were black, you were wrong. There were also people who said that the case should have never been reopened for differing factors that George might have actually done it or we’ll never know or those are just the times.

 But one statement that stuck out to me specifically was from an Alkaloo resident, Russell Harelson, who said, “I think it’s going to stir up more controversy than it’s going to do good.” And I think that’s a good question. And my answer is why not? To want to just completely ignore what happened to George Stenny.

 To shrug your shoulders and say, “What’s the big deal?” implies that Jim Crow died in 1965 and didn’t just transfer into something else. something just as insidious and dangerous. And how many George Stenny’s were there? How many black people, young or old, that we don’t even know about, were unjustly murdered, dragged from their cells or their homes, lynched, lit on fire, or shot from the death penalty information center.

 Jeffrey Collins writes, “South Carolina executed 59 people in the 1940s. 50 of them were black.” Thus, when South Carolina’s black population constituted just 43% of the total population, black inmates made up 85% of the victims of capital punishment. George Stenny Jr. was born on October 21st, 1929. He was executed by the state of South Carolina on June 16th, 1944. He was 14 years old.

 His family said he didn’t do it. His community said he didn’t do it for 70 years. And 70 years later, a judge told us what we already knew, that the trial was a sham. George spent his final hours reading his Bible in clothes that were too big for him and walked to a chair that was too big for him, with straps that were too big for him.

 And he was killed knowing that he was innocent. And I think the people that killed him knew that, too. Long live George Denny Jr. Until next time. If you made it this far in the episode, thank you for tuning in. The script to this video can be found for free on our Patreon because we don’t gatekeep knowledge.

 I appreciate y’all and I’ll see y’all next