My friends - I have recently mentioned the pluses of locating articles in early newspapers which concern the people and history of the JP region. This is difficult to do with the extant JP area newspapers, which do not extend, in any quantity, much before about 1880. Nevertheless, the big city newspapers(and the smaller ones near the JP region)often carried items about events that occurred in the JP. I have run across such an item in "The Atlanta Constitution", dated 24 February 1898, concerning a hanging in Graves County. I have reproduced the text below. I have a couple of extra comments to make about this piece just below it...... ~~~~~~~ Negro Lynched in Kentucky Confessed That He Was a Member of a Gang of Desperadoes -The Atlanta Constitution 24 Feb 1898 "Mayfield, Ky., February 23 - A mob of about 300 or 400 citizens of Mayfield and Graves County gathered from different points in the outskirts of the city and dragged Richard Allen, colored, out of the jail and carried him to the courthouse yard, and strung him up to a tree next to the one on which Jim Stone was hanged a little over a year ago. Allen is the negro who broke into James A. Wright's house last Saturday night and, pointing a pistol into Mr. Wright's face, demanded his money. He was arrested Sunday morning and was identified a few hours later. He had his trial today, along with Tom Holmes, another negro arrested for complicity. Holmes was acquitted, there being not sufficient evidence to convict him. Allen, after being swung up two or three times, finally acknowledged that he belonged to a gang of negroes composed of himself, Tom Holmes, Harvey Rice, Bob Grundy and three others, whose names could not be learned. They said they were responsible for all the crimes committed here and told who had most of the articles stolen from the people here. The mob determined to deal summary justice to the other members of the gang, and it is thought that the others will be dealt with in the same manner. Allen claimed that he was given $50 not to tell anything about the matter. The mob was one of the most orderly ones that has ever been formed in this town, not a shot being fired during the entire transaction. The citizens of the town greatly deplore the act, but it seems to be the only remedy by which to stop the burglaries. The latest report is that they have gone after the other negroes." ~~~~~~~~~~~ When read carefully, this is a remarkable, and chilling, report. We see a black individual, arrested, charged and in jail for what we would call armed robbery today; he had a trial, but the sentence given is not reported, although, even then, it certainly was not a capital offense. A mob formed, dragged the man out of the jail(apparently with no reported resistance from the authorities), strung him up to a tree, "swung him" several times, which is a torturous maneuver to try to get information or a confession from an individual, and, once the confession was had, he was hanged until dead. The newspaper reported that the mob was one of the "...most orderly..." that had been seen in the county, and went on to say that, although the town deplored the act, it seemed to be the only way to deal with the burglary situation. At the end of the article, it indicates that the rest of the gang would likely meet the same fate as Mr. Allen. The general tone of the article could be perceived to indicate that this tragedy was more or less "all in a day's work". And all of this occurred just a couple of years before the beginning of the 20th century. We have come a very long way since that day in 1898, and thank goodness for that. In that earlier era, justice was often swift, but not always was it justice. -B ===================================================================