Joe Riley
Four Black men held in the Logan County jail in Russellville, Kentucky, were taken from the jail before dawn on August 1, 1908, and hanged from trees on the Nashville pike outside town. Newspaper accounts give their names inconsistently, including Virgil, Tom, John and Robert Jones, Joe Riley and John Boyer. A man named Browder, held separately, said the four worked on farms nearby and belonged to the True Reformers, a society he described as providing insurance and burial. Papers reported that about fifty masked white men broke into the jail, and they differ on whether the jailer, J. W. Butt, was overpowered or held at gunpoint and handed over the keys. No shots were reported, and the Associated Press said no member of the mob was recognized.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. Newspaper accounts say a mob of about fifty masked men took the four Black men from the Russellville jail and hanged them from a tree outside town.
Reported by: Newspaper accounts (Associated Press and local papers) (reporters).
News reports (13)
- The Paducah Evening Sun, August 1, 1908, page 1
- The Montgomery Advertiser, August 2, 1908, page 1
- The Pensacola Journal, August 2, 1908, page 2
- The Pensacola Journal, August 2, 1908, page 1
- The Waxahachie Daily Light, August 3, 1908, page 1
- Daily Public Ledger, August 3, 1908, page 3
- Gainesville Daily Sun, August 4, 1908, page 1
- The Hartford Herald, August 5, 1908, page 1
- The Bee, August 6, 1908, page 3
- The Vanceburg Sun, August 6, 1908, page 6
- The Citizen, August 6, 1908, page 7
- The Adair County News, August 12, 1908, page 7
- The Hickman Courier, August 13, 1908, page 8