Betty Jean Necessary was a 12-year-old student who lived in Kingsport, Tennessee. On February 26, 1970, Betty Jean walked home from school with two neighbor girls and stopped by their house to see their newborn niece. One of the girls said that Betty Jean was scared to walk the wooded gravel road alone and begged her friend to walk her home. A neighbor who lived beside the wooded area saw Betty Jean heading that way, but she never made it home.
Betty Jean’s body was discovered two days later, bound, gagged, shot four times in the back and once in the abdomen, and sexually assaulted. Her shallow grave was located about a mile from her home. Betty Jean’s schoolbooks were found scattered in an area just 100 yards from the gravel road where she was last seen, and her clothing was found about 200 yards from the body.
Police charged a young man, 25-year-old Fred J. Bowen, with Betty Jean’s sexual assault and murder. After a six-day trial, a jury found Bowen guilty of first-degree murder, and the judge sentenced him to die in the electric chair. They scheduled his execution for April 26, 1971, three days after his 27th birthday. However, the appeals process delayed Bowen’s execution, and ultimately the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional. Bowen and 19 other inmates on Tennessee’s death row received resentencing to 99-year terms.
Bowen eventually died in prison in 2006.
Sources
- Smith, Bob. “Search Launched For Missing Girl” Kingsport Times (February 27, 1970) via newspapers.com
- Smith, Bob. “Officials Fear Worst As Betty Jean’s Books Found” Kingsport News (February 28, 1970) via newspapers.com
- “Lost Kingsport Girl Found Shot in Woods” The Tennessean (March 1, 1970) via newspapers.com
- “Sullivan Death Suspect Jailed” The Tennessean (March 2, 1970) via newspapers.com
- Smith, Bob. “News Lid Invoked In Girl’s Slaying” Kingsport News (March 3, 1970) via newspapers.com
- Smith, Bob. “No Violence On Bowen’s Record” Kingsport News (March 3, 1970) via newspapers.com
- “Man Indicted In Girl’s Death” The Tennessean (March 3, 1970) via newspapers.com
- “Murder Similar to Nashville’s” Kingsport News (March 6, 1970) via newspapers.com
- Atkin, Carolyn. “Kingsport Crime Follows Pattern” Kingsport Times-News (March 9, 1970) via newspapers.com
- “Thanks From The Necessary Family” Kingsport Times-News (March 15, 1970) via newspapers.com
- “‘Bearded Man’ Entices Girls” Kingsport News (April 18, 1970) via newspapers.com
- Smith, Bob. “State Asks Death Penalty For Bowen” Kingsport Times-News (July 20, 1970) via newspapers.com
- Smith, Bob. “Wife Says Bowen Talked About ‘Killing Somebody’” Kingsport Times (July 22, 1970) via newspapers.com
- Smith, Bob. “Everyone Calls Him Freddie” Kingsport Times (July 22, 1970) via newspapers.com
- Smith, Bob. “‘Just Joking’ Bowen Said” Kingsport Times (July 23, 1970) via newspapers.com
- Smith, Bob. “Bowen Insists: He Didn’t Do It” Kingsport Times (July 24, 1970) via newspapers.com
- Smith, Bob. “Bowen Case Expected To Go To Jury Today” Kingsport News (July 25, 1970) via newspapers.com
- ‘”You buried her while she was still alive’” Kingsport Times-News (July 26, 1970) via newspapers.com
- Smith, Bob. “Bowen Found Guilty: Death” Kingsport Times-News (July 26, 1970) via newspapers.com
- “What Made Freddie Tick?” Kingsport Times-News (July 26, 1970) via newspapers.com
- “Bowen Sentenced to Death In Sullivan Rape-Slaying” The Tennessean (July 26, 1970) via newspapers.com
- Smith, Bob. “Did Two Attempt To Stop Bowen By Killing?” Kingsport News (September 29, 1970)
- Smith, Bob. “‘Chair’ Still Waits For Bowen” Kingsport Times (March 1, 1971) via newspapers.com
- “Execution of Bowen Stayed” Kingsport Times-News (April 25, 1971) via newspapers.com
- “Appeal Court Turns Down Bowen’s Plea” Kingsport Times-News (September 26, 1971) via newspapers.com
- “Fred Bowen Among 20 Off Death Row” Kingsport News (June 30, 1972) via newspapers.com
- Garton, Jane. “Bowen, 20 Others, Given 99 Years From Dunn” Kingsport News (July 19, 1972) via newspapers.com
- “Inmate ‘Stable’ After Stabbing Ends Argument” The Tennessean (December 25, 1974) via newspapers.com
- “Murderer Stabbed In Prison” Kingsport Times (December 26, 1974) via newspapers.com
- “Man Who Killed Girl Dies in Prison” Kingsport News (2006) via rootsweb/ancestry
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