Miller, Hopkinsville Kentuckian, August 12, 1909.

Negro Lynched In Trigg Co.

Insulted a Little White Girl Near Caledonia, Monday.

PENALTY WAS SWIFT.

Before The Day Was Over He Was Hanged By a Mob.

An indecent proposal made to the little nine-year-old daughter of Thomas Wadlington, near Caledonia, was the crime that brought speedy death to him.

Miller was a mulatto about 20 years of age and lived near Cadiz. About 11:30 A.M. Monday the little girl was sent to the mail box at the road, 400 yards from the house, to get the mail. Miller was at the gate and accosted her and asked her if her father was at home. The little girl told him he was not. Then he asked if her brothers were and she told him they were in the field at work. Then came the proposition that terrified the little girl and as she started away in fear the brute called to her that he would give her some money if she would say nothing about what he had said. She continued to move away and replied that she would tell it when she got to the house. At this point Miller started toward her and she ran inside the gate, slammed it shut and ran as fast as she could to the house, where she told what had happened. Wayne and Monte Wadlington the child’s brothers, were soon on the trail and came up with Miller a mile and a half down the road. He denied his identity, but from the description they knew they had the right man and he was taken back to the Wadlington house where the little girl identified him and he finally confessed, saying he didn’t know why he did, that is was just “the negro in him.”

About 4 o’clock the Wadlington boys and Milton Barber started to Cadiz with Miller. They returned after night and reported that they were met by a mob of 50 men at the church half way to Cadiz and Miller was taken from them and hanged to a tree. The body was left hanging by the roadside until Tuesday evening and the authorities were notified where it could be found.

This is the fourth occurrence of this kind within a radius of ten miles within the last eight or nine months.

Last winter a white woman was assaulted by a negro named Arthurt Wilson, near Pee Dee, who is now under a sentence of death. Last Spring, a young girl was insulted by a negro named Ben Brame in Trigg county who was brought across the county line and hanged by a mob in this county. About two weeks ago a negro man named McReynolds outraged a negro child 7 years old near Gracey, the victim dying a few days later. McReynolds is now in jail here. This case comes as the fourth crime against women and children and the promptness with which Miller was put to death shows that there is to be trifling with rapists in that section.