There is little extant biographical information about Louis Laferdetta. Newspapers of the time did not report on his personal life, and his murder was written about in brief articles without any identifying information. Contemporary reports used the same language about his class status, that he was a “tramp” or a transient worker. There’s also a negative connotation with tramp that existed during the time when he was lynched. It’s possible that his status as a transient worker was misrepresented to justify the crime. Furthermore, if he was a “tramp,” then Laferdetta would not have been recorded by the U.S. Census because he may have been overlooked by census takers for not having a permanent residence.
Laferdetta arrived on an unknown day in Burlington, Boone County, where he befriended farmer William Wheelock. On July 17, 1894, newspapers reported that Laferdetta murdered Wheelock but the newspapers offered no information about the circumstances of Wheelock’s murder. Laferdetta was arrested and taken to the Boone county jail. That night a mob broke into the jail and took him just a few blocks away from the jail and hung him. Laferdetta was the second of three people hung in a bloody 48 hours across the state of Kentucky. The other two were Marion Howard and Edwin Traughber. Traughber’s biography can be found here, as part of the Documenting Racial Violence archive.
References
- “A special from Burlington, Boone county, Ohio…,” Alexandria Gazette, July 17, 1894. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress.
- “Louis Lafayette, a tramp who murdered…,” Hopkinsville Kentuckian, July 20, 1894. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress.
- “Three lynchings in Kentucky Monday is a pretty good record…,” Lexington Herald-Leader, July 17, 1894. Newspapers.com.
- “Lynching In Boone County,” The Courier-Journal, July 17, 1894. Newspapers.com.
- “Masked Gang Hangs Two Men,” The New York Times, July 22, 1894. Newspapers.com.
- “A Murdered Lynched.” The Standard Union, July 17, 1894. Newspapers.com.
Location of the Lynching
Citation
Alfaya, Martin. “Laferdetta, Louis.” Documented Biographies. Documenting Racial Violence in Kentucky. May 16, 2023. https://drvk.createuky.net/biographies/louis-laferdetta/