Dudley, Lexington Weekly Leader, September 3, 1891
subject: Dudley, James
subject: Mob, 150 members
subject: Mob, masked
subject: Mob, hanging
subject: Charge, murder
description: Terror Reigns in the Midst of Georgetown– Wild Rumors About a Negro Outbreak– Fifty Mounted Guards Help Keep Watch– State Troops Wanted by Citizens– But Frankfort Connection Can’t Be Had– Demoralized State of Affairs in General– Armed Men Patrol the Public Streets– And Guard Their Interests Jealously– Report That Three Hundred Negroes– Had Gone From This City to Georgetown– To Help Their Neighbors in the Fight– Homes Burned Down by Dudley’s Friends– Friday Night Begins the Citizens’ Vigils—Two of Them in the Same Night, and Both Discovered to Be the Work of Incendiaries– Latest Details From the Scene of the Threatened Riot. Friday morning after the lynching of the negro Dudley on the Frankfort pike, near Georgetown, the news of the hanging drew crowds of negroes to the scene of the execution. The greatest excitement prevailed, and the feeling of indignation at the lynching of one of their color by a white mob, when two white murderers in the same jail were left unharmed, soon rose to such a pitch that there was imminent danger of an immediate reaction in retaliation on their part. The crowd, however, After many threats Among themselves, dispersed, but groups of them were noticed on the street corners of Georgetown during the day discussing the lynching and vague rumors were afloat over the town that they would set the houses of the place on fire that night. These reports came mainly from the negro women of the place, who were much wrought up over the mob’s work. Even the most intelligent of the negroes were sullen in their demeanor, and the general idea of them all seemed to be that some act of retaliation was necessary to bring the whites to a realization of the extent to which their race was being imposed upon, while the law itself seemed to fail with white offenders charged with the same offenses. Great uneasiness Was felt by the people of Georgetown over the rumors which were constantly coming in of intended outrages, and though none of the inhabitants of the to…
source: Newspapers.com
publisher: The Weekly Leader (Lexington, KY)
date: 1891-09-03
contributor: Micah Lynn
format: Image
coverage: Peaks Mill, Franklin County; Georgetown, Scott County

Marshall and Patterson, Lexington Herald-Leader, January 16, 1911
subject: Marshall, Eugene
subject: Patterson, Wade
subject: Mob, hanging
subject: Mob, 40-60 members
subject: Charge, murder
subject: Mob, masked
subject: West, Jim
description: Body of One Mob Victim Missing in Shelbyville Jim West is Not Thought to Have Escaped– Best Citizens of the Town Insist That Courts Investigate the Lynching of Sunday in Which Three Met Death at Hands of Twenty Armed and Masked Men– All Were Negroes And Had Attacked Women– Unknown Gang Overpowers Jailer and Drag the Helpless Prisoners to Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Bridge Where They Are Strung Up– Rope Breaks as Two Swing From Its Ends Shelbyville, Ky., Jan. 16– A two day’s search for Jim West, the two days’ search for Jim West, the third Negro taken from jail by a mob Sunday morning when a triple lynching occurred here, has failed to reveal any trace of his body. Bloody trails were found in the creek bottom. Some were made by Wade Patterson, while is believed the others were made by West. It is not believed that West made his escape, and the searchers expect to find his dead body at some spot not far from the scene of the lynching. So far no action has been taken by the courts to investigate the lynching, though the best citizens insist that something must be done. They say the mob was made up of hoodlums. Associated Press Story Shelbyville, Ky., Jan. 16– All is quiet here today following the lynching yesterday or negroes Eugene Marshall, Wade Patterson and Jim West. It is believed that in the excitement the mob mistook Marshall, accused of murdering a negro woman, for another negro. That they wanted Patterson and West, charged with crimes against white women, is well known. The grand jury, which will meet next Monday and which was to have taken up the cases of two of the beveled who were lynched, will instead investigate the lynching. West and Patterson were being held pending a probably indictment. Marshall had already been tried and sentenced to death. Story of Lynching Shelbyville, Ky., Jan. 16– A mob of masked men, variously estimated from forty to sixty, forced their way into the jail here shortly after 2 o’clock Sunday morning and carried out three Negroes, s…
source: Newspapers.com
publisher: Lexington Herald-Leader
date: 1911-01-16
contributor: Micah Lynn
format: Image
coverage: Shelbyville, Shelby County

Marshall and Patterson, Lexington Herald-Leader, February 1, 1911
subject: West, Jim
subject: Marshall, Eugene
subject: Patterson, Wade
subject: Charge, murder
subject: Mob, hanging
description: Arm Was Broken Jim West Saved His Neck in Shelbyville Lynching, But Was Hurt in Fall Shelbyville, Ky., Feb. 1–Private detectives who have been at work in Shelbyville for weeks are said to have discovered a mass of evidence as to the operation of the mob, which lynched two Negroes and from which Jim West had a marvelous escape. It is also reported that West, whose present whereabouts are not known, has a broken arm, the injury having been suffered when he fell from the bridge after he had dangled for a time at the end of the rope by which the mob planned to hang him. West, after making his escape, went to the home of his parents, where he spent two days and two nights. The story he told of his escape, which has already been recounted, is one of the most remarkable ever known. The first Negro, Eugene Marshall, was ordered to jump from the bridge. His neck was broken. The second, Wade Patterson, refused to jump and was pushed off, but the rope broke and he tried to get away. All the mob chased him except four or five and it was while they were thus engaged that West, who had managed to grasp the rope with his hand when he was pushed off, worked the rope from around his neck, dropped to the creek bank and got away.
source: Newspapers.com
publisher: Lexington Herald-Leader
date: 1911-02-01
contributor: Micah Lynn
format: Image
coverage: Shelbyville, Shelby County

Boston, The Frankfort Roundabout, August 18, 1894
subject: Boston, Marshall
subject: Mob, hanging
subject: Charge, rape
subject: Mob, 500 members
description: Lynch Law A Negro Rapist Pays The Penalty Of His Crime– Hung Upon The Bridge At Midnight– By a Mob of Five Hundred Men The people of this city and county took the law into their own hands Tuesday night and executed swift justice upon the perpetrator of the most revolting of crimes– rape. The victim of the crime was a white woman and the criminal a brutal negro ex-convict. The circumstances connected with the terrible deed are as follows: Mrs. Martin Nolan, who lives in Choateville, about two miles from the city on the Devil’s Hollow Pike, walked down to the city Tuesday morning to do some marketing and on her way home was met on the road where a ravine comes down from Mrs. Williams’ place into Devil’s Hollow, by a negro man who first demanded money of her and when told that she had none, seized and dragged her into the ravine, where he choked her until able to accomplish his purpose and then left her, coming toward this city. The poor woman, with her clothing nearly all torn off her, went on home, and on the way told a neighbor what had happened. A messenger was sent into this city and immediately an armed posse started out in search of the negro. She described him as being a tall yellow man who had on a well worn black derby hat grey blue pants and striped shirt. She described him as being a tall yellow man who had on a well worn black derby hat, grey-blue pants and striped shirt. While the searching party were still out Judge B.G. Williams was returning from dinner on a street car and saw Marshall Boston, a negro, standing at the corner of Shelby and Campbell streets, who had scratches upon his hands and answered the description given by Mrs. Nolan. Getting off of the car Judge Williams went back and talked to the man, who did not tell a very straight story of his whereabouts during the forenoon, and calling Mr. Sam. A. Parrent to his assistance, took the negro in charge and brought him over to his office. After questioning him further the Judge concluded to send …
source: Newspapers.com
publisher: The Frankfort Roundabout
date: 1894-08-18
contributor: Micah Lynn
format: Image
coverage: Choateville; Frankfort, Franklin County

Henderson, Lexington Herald-Leader, August 21, 1890
subject: Henderson, John
subject: Charge, murder
subject: Mob, hanging
subject: Mob, masked
description: Lynched! John Henderson Strangled to Death on the Tree by Masked Men– Taken from the Versailles Jail at 2:30 O’clock This Morning– He Makes No Resistance Whatsoever so Far as Can be Ascertained– And Gives Himself Up to the Men Who Came After Him,– Saying, “I’m the Man Who Killed Satterwhite,” as He Surrenders– Jailor Shipp Compelled to Give Up the Keys at the Pistol’s Point– After Being Induced to Come to the Door for an Alleged Prisoner– The Hanging Occurs on the Farm of G.M. Fishback, Near Versailles– Story of the Unprovoked Murder that Led to the Lynching— How the News Was Received at Midway This Morning– Some Additional Circumstances Concerning the Murder This morning at about 3 o’clock John Henderson, the murderer of Gilbert Satterwhite, was lynched at Versailles. Henderson shot Satterwhite at Midway Monday night, besides fearfully mutilating his body. At the time it was claimed the killing was wholly unjustifiable by the friends of the victim, and it was reported all day Tuesday that a lynching would surely follow the crime. On Tuesday, however, the excitement had apparently subsided, and all seemed to be quiet. But it seems the mob, unlike most such reckless, thoughtless bodies, was biding their time while suspicion was being allayed. Yesterday about noon John Henderson, the victim of the mob’s awful vengeance, was examined by a physician, who Probed For The Ball In his shoulder, which was in all probability inflicted by a messenger from Satterwhite’s revolver, although the friends of the murdered farmer claim that Henderson shot himself to endeavor to make it seem that the shooting was done in self-defense. While the examination was going on it was noticeable that knots of people had congregated in the streets, some of them engaged in the Low, Earnest Conversation That is generally so fraught with significance. In this case it was evidently the first indication that death in the guise of retribution was coming to the man, who all unthinkingly reposed so quie…
source: Newspapers.com
publisher: Lexington Herald-Leader
date: 1890-08-21
contributor: Micah Lynn
format: Image
coverage: Midway; Versailles, Woodford County

Coleman, Louisville Courier-Journal, December 7, 1899
subject: Coleman, Richard
subject: Charge, rape
subject: Mob, burning
subject: Mob, thousands of members
subject: Charge, murder
subject: Mob, unmasked
description: The Latest Richard Coleman, colored, the confessed murderer of Mrs. James Lashbrooke, was burned to death by a mob at Maysville yesterday. Immediately upon his arrival from Covington in charge of the officers he was surrounded by several thousand people. On one of the principal streets of the city the officers were overpowered and their prisoner seized. He was taken to a small hollow in the outskirts of town and bound to a sapling. Brush and timber were healed around and over him and set on fire and Coleman was slowly burned to death, the frenzied crowd subjecting him to various kinds of torture before and during the burning, which lasted some three hours. No attempt at disguise was made by the men who composed the mob, which was led by the husband, relatives and friends of the woman murdered by Coleman two months ago. Title: Burned At Stake Richard Coleman Meets Death at Hands of a Frenzied Mob– Snatched Away from County Officers– At Maysville and Forced in Helpless Terror to the Scene of Torture– Bound Alive with Ropes to a Tree– And Tortured and Roasted While Thousands Looked on at His Sufferings– Relatives of Young Coleman’s Victim– Took the Lead in the Mob’s Fiendish Work and the Murdered Woman’s Husband Lighted the Funeral Pile– Story of the Crime Which Led to His Fate Maysville, Ky., Dec. 6.— [Special]— Richard Coleman, colored, the confessed murderer of Mrs. James Lashbrooke, was burned at the stake here today by a mob of several thousand people, who overpowered the officers and seized the prisoner on the way uptown after the arrival of the train from Covington at 10:10 o’clock this morning. It was a scene the like of which probably was never before witnessed in Kentucky; certainly not since the days of Indian warfare has there been a parallel to the three hours’ horrible work of the frenzied mob which tortured and burned the young negro murderer while thousands of people looked on with mingled exclamations of horror and approbation and others turned away si…
source: Newspapers.com
publisher: The Courier-Journal [Louisville, Ky.]
date: 1899-12-07
contributor: Micah Lynn
format: Image
coverage: Covington, Kenton County; Maysville, Mason County

Coleman, Maysville Evening Bulletin, December 12, 1899
subject: Coleman, Richard
subject: Editorial
description: Timely Advice to Colored People We regret to notice a disposition among the less intelligent of the colored people to attribute the recent expression of public sentiment in regard to the crime of Richard Coleman to the existence of a deep seated feeling of hostility to the colored race. There is no community of whites in Christendom which is as little open to such a charge as the community in which we live. Even in the old slavery days there were no more kindly and indulgent masters than the fathers and grandfathers of the men who meted out to Richard Coleman the penalty demanded by outraged justice for the commission of a multiple crime; and the miserable wretch who suffered this penalty bore witness, even while reeking with the blood of his benefactress, to the kindness which from childhood he had received at her hands. Is Dick Coleman to be deliberately selected by the colored people of Mason County as a representative type of their race? Does not the very suggestion dishonor the memory of the honorable old slaves who rest beside their masters in the burial-grounds of this county? Ought not the true men of the colored race to have been the first (as some, indeed, have been) to step forward and denounce the perpetrator of his horrible crime, or “plexus of crimes,” as a monster too hideous and repulsive to be classified with any branch of the human race? Not many years have elapsed since three incarnate devils, in a neighboring county, outraged and murdered three little girls, and fired the house to consume their bodies and conceal the crime. What was the result? Many lives were lost and thousands of dollars were expended to save these wretches from the same swift penalty which was measured out to Richard Coleman on Wednesday last. All the military forces of the Commonwealth were invoked to rescue from the swift hand of justice these three devils, monsters of lechery and murder who were masquerading in a civilized community in white skins and under Christian names.…
source: Newspapers.com
publisher: The Evening Bulletin (Maysville, KY)
date: 1899-12-12
contributor: Micah Lynn
format: Image
coverage: Maysville, Mason County

Maxey, Lexington Herald-Leader, June 3, 1909
subject: Maxey, John
subject: Mob, 75 members
subject: Mob, masked
subject: Mob, hanging
subject: Charge, attempted murder
description: Lynched on Capital Bridge Mob at Frankfort Hangs John Maxey And Then Riddles His Body With Bullets– Victim Had Fatally Shot Bert Bowers, Of Kansas, A Director Howe Circus– Lexington Detectives Save Man From Probable Death Earlier in the Night, But Later Masked Men Overpower Jailer Bridges, Take His Prisoner to Viaduct Over River and String Him Up. Frankfort, Ky., June 3– A mob of seventy-five masked and armed men overpowered Jailer Bridges at 2:30 o’clock this morning, took a Negro prisoner from the Franklin county jail and under the glare of the electric lights, hanged him from the bridge over the Kentucky river. The Negro was John Maxey, who shot and perhaps fatally wounded Bert Bowers, one of the directors of the Howe Shows, which exhibited here yesterday. The mob, which was orderly and determined, appeared in the vicinity of the jail without any previous intimation of its coming. While the main body waited about the jail where the prisoner was confined, a committee of about a dozen called for Jailer Bridges, saying they wanted to speak with him. Not suspecting their intent, Jailer Bridges came out and was quickly told by the members of the mob to surrender the keys to the jail as they wanted Maxey, the Negro who had shot Showman Bowers. Jailer Bridges refused to give up the keys, and the leader signaling his followers, they speedily overpowered the jailer, and searched his clothing, securing the keys, and bringing out the culprit, who begged piteously for his life. His appeals however, fell on deaf ears, for he was marched down St. Clair street until the Kentucky river bridge was reached. Here a rope was produced and he was swung up to a cross arm of the overhead bridge work. An iron column of the bridge was so close to the suspended Negro, that he grabbed hold of it several times. To shorten the work the lynchers then fired a volley into the dangling form, which ended the agony of the victim. The work of the mob was done so quickly and determinedly that within …
source: Newspapers.com
publisher: Lexington Herald-Leader
date: 1909-06-03
contributor: Micah Lynn
format: Image
coverage: Frankfort, Franklin County

Maxey, Lexington Herald-Leader, June 4, 1909
subject: Maxey, John
subject: Charge, attempted murder
subject: Mob, hanging
description: Nothing Likely to Be Done About the Lynching of John Maxey, a Negro, By a Mob at Frankfort Thursday– Governor Willson Denounces Work of the Masked Gang, But the State is Powerless– Those Who Took Part in the Affair Are Believed to Have Been Composed of Young Men, But all Who Profess to Know Anything of the Affair, Say They Were Present as Spectators– One Man Shot in the Leg– No Inquest Held Over Body. Frankfort, Ky., June 4– No steps have been taken by any officials of the county to bring to justice the members of the mob which lynched John Maxey, a Negro, here Thursday morning. No application will be made to the Governor for the offering of a reward for the capture and conviction of members of the mob and it is very probable that nothing will ever be done. Governor Wilson issued a statement Thursday afternoon in which he said that he stood ready to offer a reward and do anything in his power to bring to justice the men who participated in the lynching. He denounced the crime and the men who were guilty. Governor Willson’s statement was as follows: “Between 1 and 2 o’clock last night, Governor Willson was wakes up by a telephone call and informed that a reporter in the office of the Kentucky State Journal wished to say to him that a Negro had been hung on the bridge in Frankfort, Ky., and wished to know whether he had anything to say about it. The Governor had heard nothing of the shooting affray which preceded this and knew nothing of the case, and thinking that the legal authorities, charged by law with the prosecution of crimes, should take the proper action, and that the Governor had no authority over the matter matter or over their action, except to offer a reward when applied for according to law, answered that he knew nothing of the case and had nothing to do with it at that time, and not knowing did not wish to say anything about it then. “The duty of arresting and prosecuting those guilty of this crime is not reposed in the Governor by our law, and he has n…
source: Newspapers.com
publisher: Lexington Herald-Leader
date: 1909-06-04
contributor: Micah Lynn
format: Image
coverage: Frankfort, Franklin County

Maxey, Lexington Herald-Leader, June 5, 1909
subject: Maxey, John
subject: Mob, hanging
subject: Charge, attempted murder
description: Lynching Denounced In Bishop Penick’s Resolution, But It Is Tabled At Frankfort– He Stated That all Male Citizens in Frankfort Were Placed Under Suspicion by Murder of John Maxey. Frankfort, Ky., June 5– The Citizens’ Improvement Association, consisting of the ministers, society women and other leaders of Frankfort Friday night, in meeting assembled, laid on the table by a decisive vote a resolution denouncing the lynching of John Maxey in this city Thursday morning. More objective was made against the wording of the resolution than to the idea of denouncing the lynching. Bishop C.C. Penick, record of the Episcopal Church here, an old Confederate soldier, a former missionary to Africa, arose toward the close of the meeting and said the time had come to “do something.” “I have a resolution here,” he said, “which I desire to offer,” and it follows: “Whereas, By the lynching of the Negro, John Maxey, in the city of Frankfort, on the morning of June 3, the lynchers have placed all of our male citizens under more or less suspicion of being murderers or conniving at murder, for thereby a useless and lawless murder was committed in this, the capital city of Kentucky, and whereas, we, who claim to be good loyal and bloodless citizens of the Commonwealth, claim our right and duty to defend our names and character against such a terrible accusation as the perpetrators of this lawless deed laid us liable to; “Therefore, we, the members of the Citizens’ Improvement Association and together for betterment and righteousness, disclaim and pronounce against this murder with a deep sense of the sham it brings upon us and of the crime committed.” Judge Ira Julian moved that the phraseology of the resolution should be changed, for, he said, he did not believe any one thought the good citizens of Frankfort had anything to do with the mob. Judge James H. Hazelrigg, former Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals moved to table the motion. “In suggesting a postponement of action of this res…
source: Newspapers.com
publisher: Lexington Herald-Leader
date: 1909-06-05
contributor: Micah Lynn
format: Image
coverage: Frankfort, Franklin County