Robert Morton
Robert Morton, a Black man, was under guard by a posse at a house on the Russellville pike near Rockfield, Kentucky, while officers waited to take him to jail. According to a Bowling Green dispatch carried by The Hartford Herald, an armed group overpowered the guards, took him away, and hanged him about three miles from town on February 4, 1897. A later Bowling Green dispatch said he had not been found and had only been severely whipped, not lynched. The two accounts conflict.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched (disputed). A Bowling Green correspondent reported that an armed party overpowered the guards holding him and hanged him, while a later Bowling Green dispatch said he had not been found and had only been severely whipped.
Reported by: Bowling Green correspondent (reporters); later Bowling Green dispatch (reporters).