Pulliam, Lexington Herald-Leader, July 21, 1891

Shelbyville, Ky., July 20– Sam Pulliam, a large and burly negro, committed rape on Mrs. Thomas Glenn, wife of a prominent farmer living one mile from town yesterday at 10 o’clock. The negro had been working for Mr. Glenn, and taking advantage of Mr. Glenn’s absence, enticed his wife out in the field under the pretext of some one stealing her chickens. When they reached a large hemp field the brute sprang on Mrs. Glenn, and choking her into insensibility committed his hellish designs. As soon as the news reached town an armed posse of one hundred men started in pursuit. Telegrams were sent in every direction. The neighborhoods were notified and aroused until the eastern part of the county was literally filled with armed men. Late dispatches state that Chief of Police Retherford had caught Pulliam near Avenstoke, a small station on the Louisville Southern, seventeen miles from here, and jailed the prisoner at Lawrenceburg. There is a great excitement here and Pulliam will undoubtedly hang if brought here, as there are large crowds on the street awaiting his arrival. Mrs. Glenn’s condition is considered extremely critical by her physicians.

The report of the fiend’s attempt had spread like wildfire, and a short time afterward the hemp patch was surrounded by over one hundred armed men. Every man was armed with a pistol and every tenth man was supplied with a long piece of hemp rope. Pulliam got away, however, though the place was thought to be completely surrounded. He crawled along the side of a rail fence for several hundred yards, and escaped across the Frankfort pike.

He was seen as he crossed this road, and pursued, but he had a good start, and for the time left the searchers in great mystery. After this, the citizens broke up in parties of five and six and started to hunt for the negro in every direction. The excitement was so great that nearly all of the stores in Shelbyville shut up and business of all kinds, except man-hunting, was stopped. 

After nightfall Sheriff Long secured about twenty men as guards. Pulliam was taken out of jail and placed in a buggy, the Sheriff sitting on one side of him and the police chief on the other. A crowd of curious people followed. When the officers had gotton [sic] about two and one-half miles on the road from Lawrenceburg, a mob of fifty men overtook them, and as resistance would have been foolish, the negro was quickly lynched.

Pulliam is a large, black negro who had been employed by Mr. Glenn for some time. He has a wife and several children living near Johnstonville. Pulliam did not bear a bad reputation.