Richardson, Cincinnati Inquirer, September 27, 1913

Of Negro in Kentucky

Follows an Attempted Attack on Young White Girl.

Jailer Says Keys Were Taken From Him After He Was Gagged By Mob – McCreary SIlent.

SPECIAL DISPATCH TO THE INQUIRER

Frankfort, Ky.m September 26 – When Governor James B. McCreary was asked to-night what action he planned to take following the lynching of Joseph Richardson, a negro, at Leitchfield, Ky., early to-day, he said the lynching was news to him.

“I shall not take any action until I receive formal notice that a lynching has taken place,” said Governor McCreary. “I will have nothing to say until, through the official channels, I have received word that such an act has taken place at Leitchfield.”

SPECIAL DISPATCH TO THE INQUIRER

Leitchfield, Ky., September 26 – Joseph Richardson, a Nashville negro, who attempted to attach Ree Goff, a white girl, 11 years old, while on her way to school, was taken from the Grayson County Jail by a band of armed men early to-day and hanged from a tree in the courthouse yard.

Robert Jackson, Jailer, to-day claims that at 4 o’clock this morning he was called to his front door by some one, who claimed to be a night watchman, and said he wish to put a prisoner in jail.

Jackson opened the door and was instantly seized, he says, by three men, who demanded the keys to the jail. He refused and wa gagged and tied, he says. The mob at once searched the jail, Jackson says, and found the keys to the outer door and quickly went to the prisoner’s cell.

The negro fought desperately, according to two white prisoners, but soon was overpowered.

The men who composed the mob wore masks and numbered about 25. They worked so quietly that no one in the city knew of the lynching until this morning, when the negro’s body was seen. Sheriff Henry Ashley is trying to find who were members of the lynching party. They are believed to have come from the country, as horses and vehicles were heard passing out of the city about the time of the hanging. There was no thought of lynching until the little girl told her story of the attempted attack so vividly and with so much feeling that the citizens of her community where the attempted attack took place were worked up to a high pitch of excitement.

The negro stated that he had been in jail at Nashville, Tenn., for a similar offense. At the Coroner’s inquest this morning a verdict was returned to the effect that the negro had come to his death “at the hands of unidentified persons.”