Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-11-18
KILLED THE WRONG MEN.

That Is Called q "Sod Homicide" in Ken
ttscItY.
Elizabethtown Special to Louisville Courier
Journal.
Some two months since two men, hailing
by the names of j. w. Riggs and j. W. Lut-
trell, were arrested near Princeton, KY, on
charge of horse stealing, and at their exam
ming trial they were acquitted SO far as that
court had jurisdiction. at the close of the
trial they were confronted by George X.
Ratliff, cashier of the bank of Il. B. Rat
lift, and his two brothers, on the charge of
outraging Mrs. George X. Ratliff few days
previous. The accused Immediately made
an attempt to escape, when the Ratliff broth
ers drew their pistols, and the unfortunate
men were shot dead in their tracks. The
fact of their attempting to escape when
they were charged with the crime was
deemed as conclusive that they were the
guilty parties who had SO brutally outraged
Mrs. Ratliff a few days before, and the ven
geance of the husband was so swift and ter
rible that public sentiment justified the kill
ing, and the Ratliff brothers were discharged
at their examining trial.
When killed, Riggs and Luttrell had in
their possession two horses, which they re-
quested, before death, should be sold and the
proceeds taken to defray the expenses of
decent burial for them. The numerous &C
counts of the homicide published in the pa
pers, together with descriptions of the dead
men and of the horses, reached Tennessee,
and some gentlemen in that State who had
lost horses of the description, went to
Princeton and identified their property.
Their visit was fruitful of another result
which, while it furthers the ends of justice,
makes the killing appear in less favorable
light. These gentlemen lost their horses on
certain night, and on the second night after
that Mrs. Ratliff was chloroformed, out
ragged, and her house ransacked, while her
husband was away. The distance from
where the horses were stolen to Princeton
is upwards of $50 miles, and it was known
that the thieves were not forty miles from
where the horses were stolen on the second
day after the theft. Putting these circum-
stances together, it is now well demonstrated
fact that Riggs and Luttrell, though horse
thieves, were not guilty of the heinous crime
for which they suffered. The trial at which
they were killed took place on the sixth day
after Mrs. r. suffered so much at the hands
of some unknown rufians. The grand Jury
of Caldwell county, now in session at Prince
ton, has indicted the Ratliff brothers, for
manslaughter, their action, no doubt, being
based on the fact that the wrong men were
killed for an outrage most brutal in all its
details. The Ratliffs are wealthy, and stand
high IN their county, and public sympathy is
strong in favor of the men who will avenge
any outrage upon the sancti.y of home or
the marital rights of the husband. Report
has it that the Ratliffs have left Princeton,
though do not see that they need fear
jury of their county, men among whom they
were raised and who know them to be men
of the highest social and business standing.
The homicide in all its phases is one of the
saddest recorded in Kentucky for years.