Hampton Lee, 24, Hugh Evans, 22, and Willis Evans, 18, are taken into custody for harassing a woman returning home from a party late at night, beating her male friend unconscious for trying to intervene, then kidnapping, robbing, and gang-raping her (South Carolina, September 22, 1940) [1000 x 772].

Not much information is available about the case given the outcome, but she was held hostage for four hours. The three men, described as “farm boys” without any prior police records, stole three rings and a watch worth thousands of dollars. It’s unclear whether the rings were ever recovered. Reporters said the police could not find them. In December 1940, all three men were convicted of rape at separate trials and sentenced to death. Their families petitioned for clemency. However, none of them filed any appeals.

After Governor Burnet Maybank declined to intervene, Hampton Lee, 25, Willis Evans, 19, and Hugh Evans, 22, were executed by electrocution at the South Carolina Penitentiary on February 7, 1941. Also executed was 28-year-old James Hann, who beheaded his ex-girlfriend, 23-year-old Ruby Bowling, whom he blamed for giving him a venereal disease.

[Unlike the other three, Hann did appeal](https://www.casemine.com/judgement/us/5914cbd9add7b04934805b36)