Wade Patterson
Wade Patterson, a Black man, was one of three men taken from the Shelby County jail in Shelbyville, Kentucky, by a mob of about fifty masked men in the early hours of Sunday, January 15, 1911. Reports say a rope holding him gave way and that he was then shot many times at the edge of Clear Creek. Accounts differ on the details, including whether he was hanged from a bridge before he was shot, and a special grand jury was reported to be investigating the killing. Whether jail staff resisted the mob or handed the men over is not settled in these accounts.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A mob of about fifty masked men took Wade Patterson from the Shelby County jail in Shelbyville, Kentucky, and shot him after a rope broke, according to press accounts of the January 1911 lynching.
Reported by: Associated Press (reporters); Ernest Hornback, Deputy Jailer, as reported in the newspaper (the agency that held him).