The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1879-10-31

Two Men Hanged by Mob I'm Elliott County.
GGrayson tKy Cor. Cincinnati Enquiierl

Two Men Hanged by Mob I'm Elliott County.
GGrayson Ky Cor. Cincinnati Enquiier.l
Murder, incendiarism, thievery, bush
whscking, general devilment-and such
O farce as most of the Kentucky courts
prove to be when criminals are brought
before them-have at last melted the
better citizens of Northeast Kentucky
to rise in their might and enforce their
will as best they can. In dispatches
some weeks since mention was made of
an organized band of outlaws in this
part of Kentucky, and that O body of
masked meA had visited Martinsburg,
the county seat of Elliott county. and
served notices on officers, lawyers, citi-
zens and criminals that they would no
longer suffer murderers and known
criminals to override and disgrace their
county, and that officers and lawyers
who gave them encouragement by de-
Tending and permitting such persons to
60 UNPUBLISHED would be served in the
same way as criminals.
On Monday near midnight about 200
men rode into the town of Martinsburg
and surrounded the entire courtyard,
in which the Jail stands, in which John
w. Kendall, William Mcmillan and J.
w. Ownsby were confined, charged
with various crimes, and known to be-
long to the organization holding sway
in this part of the State. In the mean
time part of the regulators surrounded
the jailer's house, from which he at
tempted to escape by back door, but,
in the darkness, ran into the arms of
one of the party. They made him de-
liver the keys to the Jail. When
they surrounded the courtyard
there were several men about the yard
with the guards. Among them was
John Cohn, whom they caught and
tried to secure, but he broke away from
them. They fired two shots at him,
both of which took effect, one in the
left shoulder, the other in the left hip.
He finally escaped. They intended to
hang him. The party having the Jail
keys arrived by this time, when about
twenty-five proceeded to the jail I'm
locking it, they were met by William
Mcmillan, who began praying for mer-
cy. Kendall was stolid, and made no
appeals. Ownsby talked but little, but
he was badly frightened, as he had
been hanged several times some weeks
since by the regulators to make him
tell what he knew of the band that he
belonged to. Only one man spoke to
him. They soon produced ropes and
pinioned the arms of Kendall and Nc
MILAN, and, leading them to the door,
placed the ropes around their necks
They left Ownsby praying for mercy,
closed and locked the door, laid the
keys by the side of the door and, with
out a word being spoken by the whole
party of men, filed out of the court
yard and proceeded to a walnut tree
about 100 yards from the Court House,
where they formed a hollow square
about their prisoners and instituted a
trial bench. After near an hour the
sentence of death was pronounced by
Judge Lynch. Mcmillan begged for a
little time to pray, which was granted.
A small rope that had evidently been
used as plow-line was used to hang
Mcmillan. When all was ready four
strong men caught him and held Linn
up some distance so that one of the
party, who climbed the tree, could tie
the rope to a limb. They let him down
gradually, so as not to break the rope.
He was strangled to death. Until this
time Kendall had kept quiet. When he
saw his partner in the throes of death,
he began calling OH his God for mercy.
His praye were cut short. He died
hard. Both were hanged on the same
tree. The regulators remained about
half an hour, and quietly left town by
another road.