Tyler, Louisville Courier-Journal, July 26, 1894

Crime Quickly Avenged

William Tyler, the Nicholas County Fiend, Hanged by a Mob At Carlisle This Morning– Taken from Jail By Friends of the Girl He Assaulted and Hanged to a Bridge

Carlisle, Ky., July 26– (Special.)– William Tyler, the negro who committed the brutal criminal assault upon Anna Campbell at Blue Lick Tuesday night, was hanged by a mob here at 12:55 o’clock this (Thursday) morning.

Tyler was captured at May’s Lick Wednesday morning and was brought here late in the afternoon. There had been threats of lynching ever since the news of his revolting crime became public.

Tyler was brought from May’s Lick by Marshal Mitchell to Cowan Station, on the L. and N. railroad. Jailer Masten, of this city, met them at Myers’ Station and acted as escort to this place.

When the officers arrived here on the 3:12 p.m. train, they found quite a crowd of curious persons assembled, and they took Tyler off on the far side of the train and rushed him to the county jail on a run.

The Sheriff expected no violence from the citizens of the town, but about 5 p.m. the rumor was started that Tyler would be removed to some other county, and the Sheriff called upon and deputized twenty-five citizens as officers, but the time was too short to properly organize and arm his force to be effective.

At 8 p.m. every man in town was on the alert to see the mob come in from Blue Licks. Rumors came in every few minutes, but just as the tower clock in the courthouse struck 10 a well organized and orderly mob of about a hundred men marched up the main street and in answer to military commands stopped in front of the jail.

It could be plainly seen that the men were determined to accomplish their ends. The Sheriff’s force was too small to resist. After one or two deputies were disarmed they had free access to the residence to the jail, but the jailer could not be found, and after twenty minutes’ parley the leaders decided to batter down the obstructions that stood between them and their prey. Neighboring blacksmith shops were opened and implements of attack were obtained. It only took twenty blows of a sledge wielded by a sturdy farmer to demolish the mob-proof doors in the entrance of the cell room. These doors have been the boast of the citizens that no mob could force them, but they were shattered like glass.

The guilty wretch was hauled forth and brought to the door of the jail, and the leader of the mob called for silence and told the spectators that they should go to the courthouse yard. Then he asked Tyler what he had to say. Tyler stood between two guards armed with shotguns. He was composed and nothing in his looks betrayed the struggle he was undergoing. In a strange voice he said:

“Gentlemen, I am innocent of this. I did not do it. I am not guilty.”

“Yes, you are,” answered Mr. Campbell, the girl’s father. “My little girl said you did.”

That determined the mob, the majority of which decided to hang the prisoner at Piper’s bridge, at the edge of town. The mob formed with military precision and with the negro, flacked [sic] by a curious and morbid crowd of onlookers, it wended its way slowly to the place of execution. Arrived at the scene of the execution there was a wild scramble for points of vantage, as everybody seemed anxious to view as far as possible every detail of the entire affair. The mob, which throughout the entire proceeding had conducted itself in a most orderly manner, consistent with its never-lost-sight-of-object, formed a perfect cordon around the prisoner and took its stand upon the bridge.

The hanging was a bungling affair, as the rope broke and the negro had to be suspended a second time.