{"id":5902,"date":"2022-08-03T19:54:07","date_gmt":"2022-08-03T19:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/drvk.createuky.net\/clone\/?p=5902"},"modified":"2023-11-27T22:08:57","modified_gmt":"2023-11-27T22:08:57","slug":"ernest-dewley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drvk.createuky.net\/clone\/biographies\/ernest-dewley\/","title":{"rendered":"Dewley, Ernest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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There is no extent information about Ernest Dewley\u2019s birth place, birth date, parents, education level, or type of work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ernest Dewley was visiting a saloon on April 29th, 1902 in Brandenburg. He was kicked out by Frank Pickerel, the owner of a saloon for known reasons. Later that day, Dewley tried to shoot Pickerel at the railroad station. The shot went wide and hit a bystander, Henry Dowell, a young white man. Dewley was immediately arrested and taken to county jail in Bradenburg. In Guston, a mob of sixty men assembled and broke into the jail around 2:30 am, taking the keys from the uncooperative jailer Thomas Thornsberry. They dragged Dewley about half a mile into the county, where they hung him on a tree. However, he was actually killed by one of the mob shooting him while he was still being strangled. According to \u201cThe Twice-a-Week Messenger,\u201d Dewley was 19 when he died. The next day, Judge Hagan visited the site, held an inquest, and determined that Dewley was killed by a mob of persons unknown. Dewley\u2019s body was given to relatives and was taken to be buried in Irvington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lynching of Ernest Dewley reveals the role newspapers played in promoting lynching by casting the victim in a negative light. The Owensboro Twice-A-Week Messenger <\/em>described Dewley  as a \u201cdesperado\u201d who \u201c…was known as a bad negro, and had been in a number of scrapes.\u201d  The Louisville Courier-Journal<\/em> spread rumors of a lynch mob forming in Brandenburg and that it was headed to the jail to lynch Dewley.  After the lynching, the Paducah Sun<\/em> stated that Dewley had been \u201clooked after,\u201d or rightfully dispatched, by the mob.  The newspapers did not frame the lynching of Dewley as an unlawful kidnapping and murder of a state prisoner, though all the newspapers reported that the mob broke into the jail and overpowered the jailer.  Thus, many newspapers contributed to the idea that lynchings were a necessary part of law enforcement and an acceptable part of racial segregation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Location of the Lynching<\/h3>