Jim West
Jim West was held in the Shelby County jail in Shelbyville, Kentucky, when about fifty masked men came for him and two other Black men in the early hours of Sunday, January 15, 1911. The Bourbon News reported that Deputy Jailer Ernest Hornback handed the keys to the mob leaders, while another account said he first hid them. One newspaper account said a rope holding West and Wade Patterson broke, that the two tried to escape, and that they were shot many times. A special grand jury was investigating the lynching, and West's body had not been found in the days afterward.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A mob took Jim West from the Shelby County jail in Shelbyville, Kentucky, in January 1911; the deputy jailer reportedly hid the keys before handing them over to the mob leaders.
Reported by: Ernest Hornback, Deputy Jailer, as reported in the newspaper (the agency that held him); Associated Press (reporters).
News reports (7)
- Arizona Republican, January 16, 1911, page 1
- The Prescott Daily News, January 17, 1911, page 1
- The Pensacola Journal, January 17, 1911, page 1
- Daily Public Ledger, January 17, 1911, page 4
- The Bourbon News, January 17, 1911, page 1
- The Thibodaux Sentinel, January 21, 1911, page 1
- The Adair County News, January 25, 1911, page 2