Cooper and Bailey, The Muhlenberg Echo, October 18, 1883.
Dublin Core
Title
Cooper and Bailey, The Muhlenberg Echo, October 18, 1883.
Subject
Cooper, Nelson
Bailey, Sam
Charge, murder
Mob, hanging
Mob, 60 members
Mob, masked
Description
Two Negroes Hung by a Mob in Russellville
Wednesday of last week Barrett’s show exhibited in Russellville, and there was an unusually large crowd in town, and a good deal of “red eve” was imbibed. In the evening two drunken negroes, Nelson Cooper and Sam Bailey, fiendishly shot and killed Dick Winlock, an inoffensive white man, on the Nashville pike about a mile from the town. They were arrested placed in jail, and hung by a mob that night, the particulars of which the Russellville correspondent to the Courier-Journal gives as follows:
The murderers of Dick Winlock were taken from jail last night by a band of masked men and hanged in a grove hard by. As detailed in your special from here yesterday, Winlock, a poor harmless, inoffensive creature, was brutally shot to death Wednesday evening, on the Nashville turnpike, about one mile south of Russellville, by Nelson Cooper and Sam Bailey, two colored men. The killing was absolutely inhuman and fiendish, not only unprovoked, but altogether unintelligible, except upon the hypothesis that his slayers were thirsty for human blood and availed themselves to his accidental approach to appease their infernal appetite. There was no quarrel, no difficulty. Winlock was returning home from a circus, walking and very much intoxicated, and was overtaken on the highway by Cooper, who was driving a wagon and Bailey, who was on horseback. These two negroes were together, and accosted Winlock with the inquiry as to whether he was a Democrat or Republican, to which he replied it made no difference: that he was in United the States army whereupon Cooper alighted from wagon and Bailey dismounted, and both commenced denouncing and assaulting their victim, Cooper shooting him through the heart, causing instantaneous death. The murder was witnessed and the talking beard by several reputable gentlemen, as the road was full of vehicles and pedestrians returning from the circus. When arrested in his bed that night by the Sheriff, Cooper insolently inquired why he as taken, and when told by the officer, he said with great sangfroid, “Well, I did shoot the d—s— of a b—, but didn’t know whether I killed him or not; hope I did.”
These and other aggravating facts were developed at the Coroner's inquest yesterday morning. And no sooner had the prisoners been confined to the jail than the ominous whisperings of groups of men gathered on the streets gave earnest of last night’s tragedy. The storm was brewing all day, and even the casual observer could divine the desperate purpose of men who having grown weary and heartsick at the law’s delays and the almost total immunity from punishment of the law-breaking classes in this county, resolved to teach the ministers of the law a much-needed lesson in criminal jurisprudence.
It was very generally reported on the streets that the jail would be captured and these men, and perhaps others, hanged last night, but the Jailer informed me this morning that he was taken completely unawares. About midnight a body of about sixty men, heavily armed and thoroughly disguised, surrounded the jail, and ten or a dozen of the coolest approached the door and aroused Mr. J. G. Meadow, the Jailer, by telling him that the Sheriff and a policeman wanted to deliver a prisoner to him. Not recognizing the voices, he declined to open the outer door, a heavy wooden one, when without further parley the men seized a heavy log of wood near by and in a twinkling battered the door down, rushed in, presented pistols at the Jailer’s head, forcibly took the keys, and while four of them pinioned him the others unlocked the door to the cell department, hunted out the affrighted negroes and hurriedly relocked the jail, gave the keys back to its dumbfounded custodian, and took the doomed culprits to the large lawn fronting Capt. J.B. Briggs’ residence and hung them to trees. The mob was orderly and quiet. Almost stealthy in it’s methods. There was no noise, no confusion, no demonstrations of any kind. Although the night was brilliant with moonlight and the skies were cloudless, no one seems to have seen or heard the masqueraders. They did their work silently, rapidly, and well, and immediately dispersed for their homes. Whence they came, whither they went, who they were, will probably remain a mystery, for all time.
The murderers of Dick Winlock were taken from jail last night by a band of masked men and hanged in a grove hard by. As detailed in your special from here yesterday, Winlock, a poor harmless, inoffensive creature, was brutally shot to death Wednesday evening, on the Nashville turnpike, about one mile south of Russellville, by Nelson Cooper and Sam Bailey, two colored men. The killing was absolutely inhuman and fiendish, not only unprovoked, but altogether unintelligible, except upon the hypothesis that his slayers were thirsty for human blood and availed themselves to his accidental approach to appease their infernal appetite. There was no quarrel, no difficulty. Winlock was returning home from a circus, walking and very much intoxicated, and was overtaken on the highway by Cooper, who was driving a wagon and Bailey, who was on horseback. These two negroes were together, and accosted Winlock with the inquiry as to whether he was a Democrat or Republican, to which he replied it made no difference: that he was in United the States army whereupon Cooper alighted from wagon and Bailey dismounted, and both commenced denouncing and assaulting their victim, Cooper shooting him through the heart, causing instantaneous death. The murder was witnessed and the talking beard by several reputable gentlemen, as the road was full of vehicles and pedestrians returning from the circus. When arrested in his bed that night by the Sheriff, Cooper insolently inquired why he as taken, and when told by the officer, he said with great sangfroid, “Well, I did shoot the d—s— of a b—, but didn’t know whether I killed him or not; hope I did.”
These and other aggravating facts were developed at the Coroner's inquest yesterday morning. And no sooner had the prisoners been confined to the jail than the ominous whisperings of groups of men gathered on the streets gave earnest of last night’s tragedy. The storm was brewing all day, and even the casual observer could divine the desperate purpose of men who having grown weary and heartsick at the law’s delays and the almost total immunity from punishment of the law-breaking classes in this county, resolved to teach the ministers of the law a much-needed lesson in criminal jurisprudence.
It was very generally reported on the streets that the jail would be captured and these men, and perhaps others, hanged last night, but the Jailer informed me this morning that he was taken completely unawares. About midnight a body of about sixty men, heavily armed and thoroughly disguised, surrounded the jail, and ten or a dozen of the coolest approached the door and aroused Mr. J. G. Meadow, the Jailer, by telling him that the Sheriff and a policeman wanted to deliver a prisoner to him. Not recognizing the voices, he declined to open the outer door, a heavy wooden one, when without further parley the men seized a heavy log of wood near by and in a twinkling battered the door down, rushed in, presented pistols at the Jailer’s head, forcibly took the keys, and while four of them pinioned him the others unlocked the door to the cell department, hunted out the affrighted negroes and hurriedly relocked the jail, gave the keys back to its dumbfounded custodian, and took the doomed culprits to the large lawn fronting Capt. J.B. Briggs’ residence and hung them to trees. The mob was orderly and quiet. Almost stealthy in it’s methods. There was no noise, no confusion, no demonstrations of any kind. Although the night was brilliant with moonlight and the skies were cloudless, no one seems to have seen or heard the masqueraders. They did their work silently, rapidly, and well, and immediately dispersed for their homes. Whence they came, whither they went, who they were, will probably remain a mystery, for all time.
Source
Newspapers.com
Publisher
The Muhlenberg Echo
Date
1883-10-18
Contributor
Katie Craig
Format
Image.
Coverage
Russelville, Logan County
Files
Collection
Related Articles
Citation
“Cooper and Bailey, The Muhlenberg Echo, October 18, 1883.,” DRVK News Articles , accessed July 26, 2026, https://drvk.createuky.net/news-articles/items/show/88.