Jackson (MI) Citizen Patriot
May 15, 1893
page 3

AN INDIANA LYNCH

Murderer Turley Hanged by a Mob at Bedford, Indiana

Bedford, Ind., May 16 – At 2:10 this morning a mob of 100 men appeared before the jail here, forced the sheriff to give up the keys, and took John Turley, who murdered Conductor J. F. Price at Seymour [Jackson County, Indiana], from his cell and hanged him in the jail yard. Turley begged for his life, but his appeals were met with silence.

The lynching was conducted in a most orderly manner, Turley's cries being the only sound heard. After lynching their man, the mob requested that the body should not be taken down until daylight, after which they dispersed. The mob hanged Turley to a tree in the jail yard within twelve feet of the railroad track so all passing trains this morning can see his body. There were 43 men at the jail, masked, and about 50 or 60 standing guard at different points over the city.

Turley's crime was the murder of Conductor J. F. Price of the Mississippi & Ohio road. The assassination was as cowardly as it was brutal. It seems that Turley tendered an old pass when asked for his fair, which the conductor refused. After an altercation, Turley's father, a wealthy stock dealer of Lawrence County, paid his fair for him. Price then left and was standing in the door with his back toward Turley who was closely following him when the latter fired twice, each bullet piercing the kidneys and passing forward and through the stomach of his victim. Price lingered a few hours, regaining consciousness only within a few moments before his death.

Typed and donated by Randi Richardson.