The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-01-31
The Sequel to Kentucky Lynching.

A dispatch from La Grange, KY,
Jan. 7, says: The writer of this lived
in Lockport, KY, during the years
from 1865 to 1874, and it was during
that time that this country was infested
by the Ku-Klux. One morning in
April, 1873, John James, farmer liv-
ing few miles from town, came to
my store and informed me that his son
Bealy, a lad seventeen years of age,
had run off from home, and at his die
tation wrote not less than fifty letters
to relatives and acquaintance, making
inquiry for him.
In July, 1877, Richard Shuck muir
dered his father-in-law, near Gratz, KY.
He was indicted in the Owen Circuit
Court, tried, convicted and sentenced to
be executed at Owentown in July, 1878.
Before Shuck's execution he made a
confession in which he said that he
had belonged to an organized band of
thieves, and gave the names of por-
ton of them, and also the names of the
persons they had robbed and murdered.
Sam Goodrich, Joe Goodrich, James
Simmons and John James had muir
dered the son of the latter because he
knew too much. This boy is the same
boy whom James had me write the
letters making the inquiry about. Up
on the statement of Shuck three of the
above-named parties were arrested,
confined in the New Castle Henry
County, Jail, and in due course had an
examination trial. In that trial fell
low by the name of David Carter
turned States evidence, he being
accused of being an accessory to the
crime. Carter told of the killing of
Bealy James; that he had heard of it
at the time; had visited the sink hole in
which the body had been hastily buried,
and that the band to which he belonged
had done the work. James, the father
of Bealy James, fled the country and
was never arrested, and is now, l learn,
in Mexico. On a memorable night in
1878, Bob Goodrich, Sam Goodrich, Joe
Goodrich and James Simmons were
taken from the jail in Castle and hung
by mob, and an excited populace
pronounced the judgment of Judge
Lynch as just. The affair had dropped
out of the minds of those living near,
although there were some people who
could not excuse the action of the mob
This morningI was standing on the
platform of the depot at this place,
when an acquaintance stepped from
the train and informed me that Bealy
James, the boy for whose supposed
murder the Goodriches and Jim Sim
mons were hung by the mob, was on
the train. About this time Bealy stepped
out of the door, and I Immediately
recognized him. Bealy was an over
grown, ignorant boy, and time had not
improved him to any extent. He stated
to me that he had left home on account
of ill-treatment by his step-mother,
who, by the way, is daughter of the
James Simmons who was hung by the
mob, and had made his way to Indiana,
sought and found employment as
Farmland. He had been in the State
of Illinois, and had gone from there to
Arkansas. He said he had not heard
until last night in Louisville of the
trouble in Henry County, the hanging
of the unfortunate men, or that his
father was a. refugee and 'wanderer to
escape an indictment against him in
the courts for his murder. Thus it will
be seen that Shuck died with lie in
his mouth; that David Carter swore
to lie against these unfortunate men,
and that the action of Judge Lynch was
unjust, unwarranted, and should be a
lesson to mob spirits.