Thompson
Hill Saul Thompson was held in the Greensburg, Kentucky jail in November 1858 when a crowd of two or three hundred people broke in, took him and two other men, and carried them about twelve miles toward Campbellsville. Accounts in the Louisville Journal and Richmond Enquirer say the crowd hanged him from an elm tree there on November 10, 1858. Reports say the sheriff and jailer protested and tried to stop the crowd but could not, and that a local citizen's speech turned it back from some of the prisoners. Thompson wept and prayed aloud on the way and asked for a prayer on his behalf, which was offered before he was hanged. He repeatedly asserted his innocence, according to the Staunton Vindicator, and the papers' descriptions of him as a criminal are not repeated here.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A Louisville Journal letter from Campbellsville, reprinted in the Richmond Enquirer, says a mob took him from the Greensburg jail and hanged him from an elm tree, with the sheriff and jailer protesting but unable to stop the crowd.
Reported by: Louisville Journal correspondent's letter (reporters); Richmond Enquirer (reprinting the Louisville Journal letter) (reporters).