Parker Mays

There is a terrible sensation in Walton, Ky.  A negro named Parker Mays, attempted to violate the person of a little girl, and, being frightened off, made some attempt on the wife of a farmer.  The latter escaped with her infant and gave the alarm, and he was arrested.  In the preliminary examination he was identified by both parties, and an excited mob gathered.  Officers with a strong guard started with him for Burlington jail.  The mob, increasing in numbers as it followed the officers, finally made a dash, captured the prisoner, and taking him back to the scene of the crime, thee hanged him to a tree, where his body was found dangling in mid-air this morning.  The wildest excitement prevails throughout the neighborhood, but, as there is no doubt of the fiends guilt, the general feeling is that he has suffered but a just retribution.  An attempt will be made by the authorities to secure the ringleaders of the gang who took the law into their own hands in lynching Mayo.

The Stark County [Ohio] Democrat, April 5, 1877