James, The Lexington Herald, March 13, 1921

Versailles, Ky., March 13– Aroused by the failure of a jury Saturday to agree on a death sentence for Richard James, a negro, charged with the murder of two distillery guards at Midway on October 8, a mob of more than fifty men men early this morning took the prisoner from the Woodford County jail here and hanged him from a tree less than a mile from town on Frankfort pike.

The mob drove up to the jail shortly before 1:30 o’clock in seven automobiles, all heavily loaded. A guard was quietly thrown about the jail, following which four masked men knocked at the door of the home of John H. Edger, the jailer. When he came to the door the men seized him and wrested the keys to the jail away from him.

“You won’t be harmed, but we are going to get James,” the men told Edger, he said today. The mob then entered the jail and went to the cell where James was confined.

James Gives Fight

According to a story prevalent about the streets of Versailles today, James resisted the attempts of the mob to take him from his cell and it was only after a struggle he was overpowered. It is said that when the first man entered James’ cell he struck him with his fist and engaged the others in a rough and tumble fight. It was only after the negro had been struck over the head several times with a blackjack that he was subdued sufficiently for the mob to take him from the jail.

After taking James from his cell, he was placed in the waiting machines and taken half a mile from the city limits to the intersection of the pike leading from Versailles to Frankfort with a road that crosses to the old Frankfort pike.

Here from a lower limb of a cottonwood tree a rope was swung and the noose fastened about the negro’s beck. After he had been pulled several feet from the ground the other end of the rope was fastened about the base of another tree and the mob drove off.

Tried to Chew Rope in Two

It is said that James made desperate attempts to free himself and the rope which which he was hung was said to bear James’ teeth marks showing where he had attempted to but the rope which was strangling him. The body, when cut down at 5 o’clock this morning was found dangling less than five feet from the ground. The tree from which James was hung is about 100 yards from another tree from which a negro was hung by a mob less than twenty five years ago.

Mark Brower, a negro undertaker of Versailles, cut down the body and brought it to his establishment in the city after he had been notified by the coroner, B.B. Smith. Shortly after the mob had taken James from the jail, Mr. Edger, the jailer, called County Attorney Will D. Jesse. He immediately notified coroner Smith, who began a search for the body.

Will Hold Inquest Today

Inquest into the death will be held tomorrow morning, Coroner Smith announced today. Whether Jailed Edger was able to identify any of the men in the mob is not known. It is believed, however, that he did nog recognize any of the men, as the four who seized him when he came to the door of his home were masked. The others were some distance away and standing in the dark. The members of the mob are all believed to have come from the Midway section, as they came to Versailles in machines from that direction.

Lynched Near Girls’ School

The tree from which James was hung is about 400 yards from Margaret College, a girls’ school. The institution faces on a street of Versailles, but from the rear of the school the spot where the negro was hung can be plainly seen.

Woodford County officials visited the scene of the hanging today. The rope with which James was lynched was turned over to the authorities by the undertaker. Hundreds of people today visited the scene of the hanging. Marks on the tree indicated one member of the mob had climbed it and fastened the rope about the limb. Ten or fifteen feet away stands a tree about which the rope was tied by the mob.

Feeling has been high since the trial of James began, the authorities were not prepared for such action on the part of the citizens. James was accused of killing Rogers and Nave when he was apprehended while attempting to rob the Midway distillery.

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