Harry Ardell
Harry Ardell was held in the jail at Shepherdsville, Kentucky, when a masked mob broke in shortly after 1 a.m. on June 26, 1889. According to the Weekly Courier-Journal, Jailer Bowman gave up the keys and led the men to the cells, and the mob took Ardell out and hanged him from a tree about a mile and a half from town. Bowman, the paper reports, said Ardell was calm and asked only that his body be sent home to his family in Pennsylvania. The Daily Times account says the jailer was overpowered and his wife handed over the keys, while the Semi-Weekly Interior Journal says the jailer made no resistance and the accounts differ on how he died, with one reporting hanging from an oak and another strangulation.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A mob took Harry Ardell from the Sheppardsville jail, where the jailer gave up the keys, and hanged him from an oak tree.
Reported by: The Daily Times (reporters); the newspaper account of the Sheppardsville jail hanging (reporters).