Will Lockett was executed in Kentucky's electric chair on March 11, 1920, five weeks after the killing of Geneva Hardman, a ten-year-old schoolgirl from southern Fayette County. He was an Army veteran. Arrested soon after the girl was found, he was indicted on February 5 and pleaded guilty on February 9, 1920, in the Fayette County courthouse in Lexington. While the case was heard inside, a crowd that had come to take him and lynch him charged the building. State troops fired into it with rifles and a machine gun. Federal soldiers from Camp Taylor then took control of the city and the county under martial law.
The case is remembered in Lexington mostly for the riot. Days before he died, Lockett claimed that his real name was Petrie Kimbrough and admitted other assaults and killings, according to the Lexington History Museum. None of those claims was tried in court. His one conviction is for the murder of Geneva Hardman.
Geneva Hardman was ten years old, a schoolgirl in the South Elkhorn area of Fayette County. The Associated Press, in its report from Lexington on the day of the trial, said she had left home for a neighboring schoolhouse one morning the week before and was found dead a short time later. The Lexington History Museum dates the search for her to February 4, 1920.
The investigation moved fast. According to the Lexington History Museum, a local man told the authorities that he had given a ride, in the area that morning, to Will Lockett, an Army veteran with a local reputation as a burglar and a bootlegger. Bloodhounds were brought out and followed a trail. A man covered in mud was tracked and later identified as Lockett.
Deputy Sheriff W. C. White and a local doctor caught him near Dixontown that afternoon, the museum says. He gave conflicting names when he was taken. The newspapers of the day disagreed about whether he confessed at once; police questioned him briefly, and he was reported to have admitted the killing. A crowd began to gather outside the jail, and he was moved to Frankfort, the state capital, for safekeeping.
A local magazine history of the old courthouse, published by Smiley Pete Publishing in 2012, says he was held at the state penitentiary in Frankfort for five days before his trial. The AP reported that he was brought back to Lexington on a special train early on the morning of February 9.
A Fayette County grand jury indicted Lockett on February 5, 1920, the Lexington History Museum says. Judge Charles Kerr of the circuit court appointed two lawyers, Samuel M. Wilson and George K. Hunt, to defend him. John R. Allen prosecuted.
The trial began on Monday, February 9. Lockett pleaded guilty, and a jury fixed his punishment. It chose death within minutes, according to the museum; the Smiley Pete history says the jury returned its verdict after only 30 minutes. The Associated Press reported that the jury convicted him of first-degree murder and that he was sentenced to die in the electric chair on March 11.
The courtroom was crowded. The AP said nobody was allowed inside without being searched for weapons, and that guards kept the surrounding streets clear.
Hundreds of farmers from the surrounding country came into Lexington for the trial, the AP reported. Governor Edwin Morrow had called out the Kentucky National Guard to protect the prisoner, according to the Smiley Pete history, and the guardsmen set up a machine gun in front of the courthouse. About 300 militiamen were on duty that morning.
As the trial went on inside, a crowd outside pushed toward the courthouse entrance. The AP said the leaders carried a rope. The troops first showed their weapons, then fired with rifles and with the machine gun mounted at the entrance. After several volleys the crowd fell back, leaving dead and wounded people on the courthouse steps and in the street.
A former member of the city fire department told the AP that he had been on Main Street when the crowd rushed the door and that he was carried forward with it. He said one man jumped on the back of the soldier at the machine gun and another knocked the gun over; a policeman clubbed a man, and an officer shot a man standing behind him.
The 2012 Smiley Pete history gives a different account of how the rush began. It says a photographer asked men in the crowd to wave their fists for a picture, and that others took the gesture as a signal and surged toward the door.
While the shooting went on, the prisoner was taken out of the building in secret. The AP credited the stand at the door with keeping the crowd back long enough for officials to move him.
The first Associated Press report from Lexington that day counted four people killed and fifteen injured, and said several of the wounded were not expected to live. The dead were men from Lexington and Versailles. The Lexington History Museum and the Smiley Pete history both give the final toll as six killed; the museum also counts twenty wounded.
The crowd did not go home. According to the AP, men from the crowd went from one pawnshop and gun dealer to the next, demanding firearms and ammunition. One dealer told the AP that he handed over the guns he had, probably forty or fifty. Another said twenty-five or thirty men came into his shop, promised to bring the guns back, and took perhaps fifty or sixty. A third said he had no guns in stock.
Local officials judged that the 300 militiamen in the city were not enough. The AP reported that 400 soldiers from Camp Taylor, Kentucky, had been ordered to Lexington and were on their way. Federal troops then declared martial law, the Lexington History Museum says, and it remained in force for about two weeks.
A special grand jury was called to look into the shooting and the disorder. It indicted no one, according to the Lexington History Museum.
On March 8, 1920, Lockett made a new statement. He said that his real name was Petrie Kimbrough, and he confessed to other assaults and killings, the Lexington History Museum says. Authorities connected him with the death of a woman named Sallie A. Kraft.
These were claims made by a condemned man. They were never tested in a trial, and how far they were ever checked is not recorded. They are recorded as his confession and nothing more.
Lockett was taken to the state prison at Eddyville. He died in the electric chair there on March 11, 1920, the date the court had set, according to the Lexington History Museum. The Smiley Pete history says he died in the electric chair about a month after his trial and remarks that punishment was swift in that era.
The speed of the case has drawn comment since. The Lexington History Museum's account asks readers whether the trial was fair, and observes that a defense based on mental illness became common only decades later.
His name. He was tried and executed as Will Lockett; the AP called him William Lockett. His claim that his real name was Petrie Kimbrough was made days before his death and rests on the Lexington History Museum's account.
Other killings. His March 1920 confession to other assaults and killings, and the link to the death of Sallie A. Kraft, were never tried. They are his claims, not findings of a court.
The death toll in the riot. The AP counted four dead and fifteen hurt on the day itself, with more expected to die; later local histories give six dead and about twenty wounded.
How long the jury took. "Within minutes" in the museum's account; 30 minutes in the Smiley Pete history.
How the rush began. The AP describes a crowd led by men carrying a rope; the Smiley Pete history tells of a photographer's request misread as a signal.
February 1920: Geneva Hardman, 10, is killed in southern Fayette County, Kentucky. The search for her is dated February 4 by the Lexington History Museum.
February 1920, the same afternoon: Will Lockett is caught near Dixontown by Deputy Sheriff W. C. White and a local doctor, questioned, and moved to Frankfort as a crowd gathers.
February 5, 1920: A Fayette County grand jury indicts him.
February 9, 1920: He is brought back to Lexington by special train, pleads guilty before Judge Charles Kerr, and a jury fixes death. A crowd rushes the courthouse; troops fire, and at least four people are killed. Men from the crowd loot pawnshops for guns.
February 9, 1920: Four hundred soldiers from Camp Taylor are ordered to Lexington. Federal troops declare martial law, which lasts about two weeks.
After the riot: A special grand jury returns no indictments.
March 8, 1920: Lockett says his real name is Petrie Kimbrough and confesses to other assaults and killings.
March 11, 1920: He is electrocuted at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville.