The Ashland Tragedy, Pt. 3: Vengeance

On June 1, 1882, a jury convicted George Ellis and sentenced him to life in prison rather than death. He had confessed. He had testified against the other two men. He had given the Commonwealth its case.

He was dead before morning.

After William Neal and Ellis Craft were sentenced, a private investigator named Alf Burnett — hired by Craft's wealthy brother — argued in newspapers across Kentucky that Ellis' confession had been coerced, and pointed the case instead at three Black railroad workers. One of them, Will Direly, was tried and acquitted. Burnett was later charged with kidnapping him. Deputy U.S. Marshal James Heflin then told the Courier Journal that he had invented the theory himself to draw Burnett away from the investigation.

Just after midnight on June 2, roughly 18 masked men forced their way into the Boyd County jail and lynched Ellis at a sycamore near where the murders had happened. Their identities were never established. Craft and Neal were guarded by hundreds of soldiers. Ellis had one jailer.

A week later, a Lawrence County newspaper correspondent closed a routine community column — a school trustee election, wet weather ruining the corn — by reporting that the news had been received with satisfaction, and that the only regret was that the hangmen had not brought two more ropes.

Hosts Marcus Roland and Emily Steele are joined by historian Joe Castle.

This is Pt. 3 of a four-part series.

Keywords: Kentucky true crime, Kentucky Case Files, Ashland Tragedy, Ashland Kentucky, Boyd County, George Ellis, lynching, mob violence, Alf Burnett, Will Direly, James Heflin, Reconstruction Kentucky, vigilantism, 1882, historical true crime, Joe Castle, true crime podcast, Kentucky history podcast