John A. Bennett

Legendary card · No. 630

John Arthur Bennett (April 10, 1936 – April 13, 1961) was a U.S. Army private who was convicted by court-martial of raping and attempting to murder an 11-year-old girl while stationed in Austria. He was sentenced to death for the crimes and was executed by hanging at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas in 1961. Bennett's victim and her parents had requested clemency, but President John F. Kennedy declined to commute the sentence. Bennett is notable primarily because his execution was the last carried out by the United States Armed Forces following a court martial. He remains the only American serviceman to have been executed for rape committed during peacetime.

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