NOTE: There was no lynching in this case.
This illustration is used to reference the reality that fake rape cases have
indeed led to many lynchings of innocent men.
***
***
FULL TEXT Article 1 of 2): St. Louis – The wife of a soldier stationed
in Germany admitted Sunday, police said, that her story of being abducted and
raped by five men was a hoax. Mrs. Wanda Lou Landis, 20, was booked on
suspicion of making a false report of a law violation.
The mother of two children, a 2-year-old
daughter and a 3-month-old boy, Mrs. Landis was released on $500 bond pending
the filing of formal charges.
Mrs. Landis, a white woman, told police five
Negroes pulled her into a car off a busy street corner Sept. 17, drove her
around for more than 24 hours and raped her repeatedly.
Mrs. Landis gave police detailed descriptions
of her alleged attackers and of the car she said they drove.
The story aroused public indignation. A
reward of more than $3,000 was collected for information leading to solution of
the case.
But police began to notice discrepancies in
the story and questioned Mrs. Landis at length. She finally admitted the hoax,
said Chief of Detectives James L. Shea, and gave a 9 1/2-page statement containing this story:
Mrs. Landis picked up a Coast Guardsman in
her car on the afternoon of Sept. 16. drove him to nearby Alton, III., and
returned former home, where she drank a bottle of gin.
Saturday, she encountered the Coast Guardsman
in a St. Louis bar. They drank, danced and visited other taverns.
Saturday night and most of Sunday, they spent
in a car and a vacant house.
Authorities said the Coast Guardsman verified
the story. He was not charged or identified. Police said Mrs. Landis told them
she made up the hoax because:
"I had heard a police officer say that I
looked like I had been raped. I then thought of the story, thinking that if I
reported such an incident, my husband would be brought back home."
[“Woman
Admits Rape Report Was a Hoax,” syndicated (AP), Sep. 26, 1960, p. 3B]
***
FULL TEXT: St. Louis – Mrs. Wanda Lou Landis, perpetrator of a rape hoax that aroused racial tension in St. Louis, has been jailed. Judge Louis Cornerford of the Court of Criminal Correction, sent her to jail Wednesday and revoked her six months probation after she failed to pay an accompanying $250 fine for making a false report.
The judge ordered that she remain in jail
until the fine is paid. Her attorney said she had no money. He added that she
is pregnant. Mrs. Landis, 20, is the wife of a soldier at Fort Leonard Wood,
Mo.
Last September, the white woman told police
she was abducted and raped by five Negroes. She admitted the story was a hoax,
to cover up her absence when she went on a round of tavern visits with a Coast
Guardsman and spent the night with him in a vacant house.
[“Fake
Rape Case Perpetrator Is Placed in Jail,” syndicated (AP), Joplin News Herald
(Mo.), Feb. 16, 1961, p. 6A]
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More historical cases of False Rape Accusations
***
[1171-10/25/21]
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