The Ashland Tragedy, Pt. 4: The Granite State Incident

In October 1882, Kentucky Gov. Luke Blackburn sent state troops into Eastern Kentucky to protect two condemned men awaiting retrial — one of the largest military deployments the commonwealth had ever made over a criminal case.

Newspapers reported he had said the troops were there to support the dignity of the law, if the whole of Boyd County had to be killed protecting the prisoners. A later state report argued the words were wrongly attributed to him. It hardly mattered. Someone had already hanged Blackburn in effigy from the same sycamore where George Ellis was lynched.

When a mob tore up the railroad between Ashland and Lexington, Major John Allen loaded roughly 180 soldiers — many young and barely trained — and both prisoners aboard a commandeered steamboat called the Granite State. People gathered along the Ashland bank to see it pass. Then all hell broke loose.

At least five civilians were killed when soldiers fired their guns into the crowd. Most were bystanders. The soldiers and the official report describe the steamboat being fired on first from the shore; witnesses at the coroner's inquest testified no organized gunfire came from the bank at all. Both accounts are in the record, and they cannot both be right. The jury found Allen culpable. Nothing came of it, and he was later promoted.

The series concludes with the retrials in Carter County and the executions of Ellis Craft in 1883 and William Neal in 1885 — three years, three months and three days after the infamous child murders that became known as the Ashland Tragedy.

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

This is Part 4, the final installment, of a four-part series.

Keywords: Kentucky true crime, Kentucky Case Files, Ashland Tragedy, Granite State incident, Ashland Kentucky, Boyd County, Kentucky State Guard, Luke Blackburn, Major John Allen, militia shooting, Ellis Craft, William Neal, Carter County, Grayson Kentucky, due process, historical true crime, Joe Castle, true crime podcast, Kentucky history podcast