ALLEGED SLAYER TAKEN FROM JAIL SUNDAY MORNING Negro Dragged From Cell After Keys Are Snatched

From Jailer STRUCK WITH BLACKJACK Violence Follows Trial at Which Jury Was Hung [Special to The Herald] Versailles, Ky. March 13, Aroused by the failure of a jury Saturday to agree on a death sentence for Richard James, a negro, charged with the murder of two distillery guards at Midway on October 8, a mob of more than 50 men early Sunday morning took the prisoner from the Woodford county jail here and hanged him from a tree less than a mile from Versailles on the Frankfort pike. The mob drove up to the jail shortly before 1:30 oclock Sunday morning in seven automobiles, all heavily loaded. A guard was quietly thrown about the jail, following which four masked men knocked at the door of the home of John H. Edger, the jailer. When he came to the door the men seized him and wrested the keys to the jail away from him. You wont be harmed but we are going to get James, the men told Edger, he said today. The mob then entered the jail and went to the cell where James was confined. According to a story prevalent about the streets of Versailles today, James resisted the attempts of the mob to take him from his cell and it was only after a struggle he was overpowered. It is said that when the first man entered Jamess

cell he struck him with his fist and engaged the others in a rough and tumble fight. Struck With Blackjack It was only after the man had been struck over the head several times with a blackjack that he was subdued sufficiently for the mob to take him from the jail. After taking James from his cell, he was placed in one of the waiting machines and taken about one-half mile from the city limits of Versailles to the intersection of the pike leading from Versailles to Frankfort with a road that crosses to the Old Frankfort pike. Here from a lower limb of a cottonwood tree a rope was swung and the noose fastened about the neck of the doomed man. After he had been pulled several feet from the ground the other end of the rope was fastened about the base of another tree and the mob drove off. It is said that James made desperate attempts to free himself and the rope with which he was hung was said to bear the teeth marks of James showing where he had attempted to bite the rope which was strangling him. Body is Removed The body when cut down at 5 oclock this morning was found hanging less than five feet from the ground. The tree from which James was hung is about a 100 yards from another tree from which a negro was hanged by a mob less than 25 years ago. Mack Brown, a negro undertaker of Versailles, took down the body and brought it to his establishment in this city after he had been notified by the coroner, B. B. Smith. Shortly after the mob had taken James from the jail, Mr. Edger, the jailer, called County Attorney Will D. Jesse. He immediately notified Coroner Smith who began a search for the body.

Inquest into the death will be held Monday morning, Coroner Smith announced today. Whether Jailer Edger was able to identify any of the men in the mob in not known. It is believed, however, that he did not recognize any of the men as the four who seized him when he came to the door of his home were masked. The others were some distance away and standing in the dark. The members of the mob are all believed to have come from the Midway section as they came to Versailles in machines from that direction. College Near Scene The tree from which James was hanged is about 400 yards from Margaret College, a girls school. The institution faces on a street of Versailles, but from the rear of the institution the spot where the mob called a halt be plainly seen. Woodford county officials visited the scene of the hanging Sunday. The rope with which James hung was turned over to the authorities by the undertaker. Hundreds of persons today visited the scene of the hanging. Marks on the tree from which the man was hung indicated that one member of the mob had climbed it and fastened the rope about a limb. Ten of fifteen feet away stands a tree, almost identically the same, about which the rope was tied by the mob. Feeling has been high since the trial of James began, though authorities were not prepared for such action on the part of the citizens. James was accused of the killing of Ben T. Rogers and Homer Nave, of Midway, on October 8 or last year, when he was apprehended while attempting to rob the Midway distillery. James was arrested along with two other negroes who are at the present time in jail at Frankfort in custody of federal officers who have them charged with the robbery of the distillery.

Killing Was Brutal The killing of Rogers is said to have been especially brutal as it was shown that he was shot in the back at close range, powder burns having been found on his clothes. Trial of James has been on for several days in the Woodford circuit court before Judge Robert L. Stout. After being hopelessly hung for 24 hours, the jury trying the case was released shortly after 5 oclock Saturday afternoon by Judge Stout. The final ballot when the jury was discharged stood 11 for imposition of hte death sentence and one for life imprisonment. Judge Stout in an attempt to allay feeling ordered the case assigned for retrial on March 28, calling a special term of court. With the discharge of the jury Saturday afternoon, C. M. Harris and N. W. Nuchols, attorneys who had been appointed by the court to defend James asked that they be relieved of further service in the case. Their request was granted, Judge Stout declaring that they would not be further called upon to serve as attorneys for the defendant. The shooting of Rogers and Nave, of which James was accused, occurred early on the morning of October 8. James along with several other negroes was discovered i the distillery by the guards. Nave and Rogers rushed to the assistance of the officers and during the exchange of shots Rogers and Nave were killed. Rogers died at the Good Samaritan hospital shortly after being shot. Both men fell near the door of the distillery leading from the office into the warehouse. Employee Is Arrested Federal authorities immediately began a search for the men supposed to hav done the shooting and entered the

distillery. Five negroes were arrested charged with the crime and several days later Harry Seay, in charge of the bottling plant of the distillery, was also taken into custody, it being charged that he on several occasions had admitted the negores into the distillery. Seay is out on bond at the present time. James surrendered to authorities two days after the shooting occurred. During the fight with the officers he was wounded and hid in cornfields, finally making his way to a negros home in Midway. He late surrendered to the federal authorities, who brought him to Lexington. James for several weeks was in a seriouse condition, the bullet having penetrated his abdomen. He recovered, however, and was again placed in the Fayette county jail. Shortly afterwards he was take to Versailles and placed in jail there, where he remained until he was taken out this morning. (Lexington Herald 3/13/1921)