Ruth McGinnis (born Farnsworth), 1921 - 1948
Ruth Farnsworth served in the Women's Army Corps (WAC) during World War II. In December 1948, at age 27, she was working as a Navy civilian employee (some accounts say as a nurse) on Guam.
Ruth was married to Marine Sgt. Sterling McGinnis, although most news reports of the time referred to her by her maiden name of Ruth Farnsworth.
On Saturday evening, 11 December 1948, Ruth was violently attacked, beaten and raped. She died of her injuries in hospital on 13 December 1948.
Evidence found by Investigators included a pair of boots found near the crime scene and some bloody trousers found in a barracks.
By 16 December 1948, Major John Copeland, chief of Guam police, announced that two unnamed men were under investigation for the crime.
As the investigation progressed, it was stated at one point that three men were involved in the attack on Ruth Farnsworth. Eventually two Air Force enlisted men; Robert Burns of Spokane, Washington and Herman Dennis, Jr. of Calvert, Texas were charged and convicted by Court Martial of Ruth's murder. They were sentenced to Death and, after appeals to the Supreme Court and President Eisenhower failed, they were hanged in 1954. Both claimed their innocence to the end.
Because both Burns and Dennis were black, and Ruth Farnsworth was white, the NAACP became involved in the case, and there remains controversy as to the fairness of the trial and its outcome.
Were the defendants guilty of murder, or did someone else kill Ruth Farnsworth and escape justice?
LINKS:
https://www.myheritage.com/names/ruth_farnsworth
EX-WAC ON GUAM DIES AFTER ATTACK; Navy Civilian Employe, Found Unconscious in Jungle, Victim of Beating and Exposure (Published 1948)
3 SERVICE MEN HELD IN GUAM RAPE CASE (Published 1949)
Madera Tribune 16 December 1948 — California Digital Newspaper Collection
Please Don't Cry for Me: The Ruth Farnsworth Murder Story by Robert Leland Athey
Two Negro GIs, Robert Burns and Herman Dennis, Jr., Hanged for Rape in Guam, Plead Innocence on Scaffold - Jet Magazine, February 11, 1954
Another Injustice Disclosed