Ardell, Lexington Herald-Leader, June 27, 1889.
Associated Press to The Leader. LOUISVILLE, June 27. – A mob went to the jail at Shepherdsville, Bullitt County, at 1 o’clock Wednesday morning. They demanded of Jailer Bowman the surrender of Thomas Mitchell and Charles Ardell, who were confined there charged with murder of a peddler named Joseph Levin. Mr. Bowman refused to surrender the men and took his stand in front of the food with a shotgun, declaring he would kill the first man who tried to pass. Mrs. Bowman, hearing the threats, and fearing that her husband would be killed, ran forward and gave them the keys, begging Mr. Bowman not to provoke them. The leader then unlocked the doors and went to the cell where the prisoners were confined. The jailer followed, begging them at least to spare Mitchell who he believed was innocent. They yielded to his entreaties, telling Mitchell he might thank Mr. Bowman for his life, and, binding Ardell, took him to the woods where they hung him to a tree. The men all wore masks and were on horseback. The crime with which the men was charged was a most flagrant one. Levin had stopped at a house near Shepherdsville last Thursday, and was showing his goods, when two tramps came up and asked for something to eat. They remained several minutes, and when they left, secreted themselves by the side of the road, a short distance away. When Levin came by they demanded his money, and, upon his refusal to give it up, shot him down and robbed him, broad daylight as it was. The shots were heard, and the men were seen running away. Levin, who was a Pole, was brought to his home in this city, and died last Sunday. On Friday Mitchell and Ardell were arrested and identified as the tramps. Ardell admitted the killing and said Mitchell had not taken a hand in the deed. Ardell’s right name is thought to be Harry Forrest. His father lives twelve miles from Pittsburgh, and is a well-to-do respectable man. He long ago disowned his son, who seems to have been thoroughly depraved almost from infancy. Mitchell lives in Jeffersonville, Ind., and has a wife and several children. He claims to be an engineer, and until recently was employed in the car works. He left Jeffersonville the Monday before the shooting and went to New Haven, Ky., in search of work. He failed to get a job, and was on his way home, “tramping,” when he fell in with Ardell, whom he claims to never to have seen before. Ardell persistently refused to talk about the shooting, but Mitchell did not deny it. He fixes all the blame on his companion, however, and says he begged Ardell not to shoot when Levin refused to give up the money. Mitchell had no weapon of any kind, and the pistol used was stolen by Ardell from a house several miles down the road two days previous.