The Lynching of Laferdette the Fourth in a Few Years

That the men who took Laferdette out of jail and hung him were not strangers to that kind of business is evidenced by the fact that he is the fourth man to due at the hands of a mob within the past four years.  It is known that some of the men, at least, who had a hand in the [Laferdette] affair last Monday night were either passive or active participants in the former lawless disposals of offensive criminals.  About ten years ago a colored man named Cleveland was taken from the Burlington jail and hanged to a tree for the attempted murder of a prominent farmer named Ward.  Among those who took part in this “bee” were a number of railroad men from Ohio   The second case in recent years was that of Parker Mayo, a colored man, whose crime was the outraging of a little girl.  The deed was a peculiarly atrocious one.  His witness was Maggie McCormick, aged 13 years, but she did not die.  The mob made short work of Mayo, who was strung up on a tree near Walton.  The next victim of the rope was Charles Smith, also a colored man, who was also hanged near Walton.  His offense was burning barns.  He died on a big elm tree on the Lexington Pike, which is still pointed out to those who like to hear such morbid incidents of the county’s history.   The lynching of Charles Dickenson, also colored, who is said to be guilty of burglarizing old man Connor’s store and attempting the life of the proprietor, was a very cruel one.  The first rope broke, and one of the lynchers took the rope from the toll-gate pole, and with that and apart of a chain Dickerson was strangled to death.  He was taken out of the Burlington jail.  So far as there is any record, Laferdette is the only white man who has suffered at the hands of a mob in Boone County.

from the Cincinnati Enquirer, July 18, 1894.