Hill, Adair County News, December 23, 1908

A Rope Placed Around Elmer Hill’s Neck and He is Jerked into Eternity.

ABOUT THIRTY MEN DID THE WORK.

The expected happened last Wednesday night when a mob of about thirty or forty citizens of Russell county visited the Monticello jail, took therefrom Elmer Hill, who assaulted and murdered little Mamie Wormack, near Russell Springs, conveying him to the mouth of Greasy Creek, in Russell county, and there hanged him until he was dead, his body being left dangling from a tree when the mob withdrew. It is useless to repeat the history of the crime, as a full account of it appeared in the issue of the News of last week.

There was no trouble at the Monticello jail. Sheriff Wright was not at the jail with a posse of me. The jailer was called up and the mob made its business known. The jailer seeing that it would be useless to resist, gave up the keys.

It is said that the mob who executed Hill was made up of some of the best citizens of Russell county, who felt that they could not longer wait for the death of a man who had committed such a dastardly crime.

While a great many will say that it would have been better for Russell county if the law had been permitted to have taken its course, but very few, if any, wille censure the action of the men who participated in putting to death the man who committed the most heinous crime ever recorded in this section of Kentucky or in any other State.

It is our understanding that Hill, soon after he was taken from the jail at Monticello, confessed his guilt in the hearing of a Wayne county gentleman, who happened to be up at the time. Even if he did not confess, he left substantial evidence, discarded clothing, which were found at the home of his grandfather.

It is reported here, howerer, that Hill’s full confession was made to Mr. Cyrus Dunbar, a merchant at the mouth of Greasy creek, just before he was hanged. He was permitted by the mob to talk to Mr. Dunbar. He stated that he was guilty and that no other person was implicated. He also said that the only thing he regretted was, that he wanted to live so that he could treat three other girls in the neighborhood the same way.

We also learn from another source that Hill did not see Mr. Dunbar, and that his confession was made to the mob, but it was substantially what is stated above that he said to Dunbar. 

While the law was not vindicated, the world has been made richer, and Russell and her sister counties are happy.