Hume Redman
Hume Redman was held in the Evansville, Indiana, county jail when about one hundred mounted men from Posey County surrounded the jail in the early hours of October 11, 1882. Newspaper dispatches report that the sheriff was overpowered and forced to give up the keys, and that the men took Redman from his cell and put him in a buggy. Several accounts say that a sledgehammer blow to the head killed him during the flight, and that officers exchanged heavy gunfire with the mob. The accounts differ on the order of events, including whether a fire engine overturned the buggy before the blow, and on whether the sheriff resisted or handed Redman over.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A mob of about one hundred men from Posey County broke into the Evansville, Indiana, county jail, forced the sheriff to give up the keys, took Redman from his cell and killed him, with one man striking him on the head with a sledge hammer and officers and the mob exchanging gunfire.
Reported by: Evansville dispatch reprinted in the Savannah Morning News (reporters); Evansville dispatch in The Daily Gazette (reporters); Evansville, Ind., dispatch printed in the Daily Kennebec Journal (reporters); The Abbeville Press and Banner, reporting a news dispatch (reporters).
Sources (7)
- Savannah Morning News, October 12, 1882, page 1
- The Daily Gazette, October 12, 1882, page 2
- Daily Kennebec Journal, October 12, 1882, page 2
- The Billings Herald, October 19, 1882, page 2
- Gloucester County Democrat, October 19, 1882, page 4
- Narragansett Herald, October 21, 1882, page 4
- The Abbeville Press And Banner, October 25, 1882, page 4