Going Home to Die No More: A True Kentucky Story about a Train Robbery and a Hanging after the Civil War

It all began in November 1866, when Captain William P. King, a Union army veteran, along with 12 accomplices, derailed a Louisville & Nashville Railroad train, sending the iron steam engine plummeting down a 40-foot embankment just north of their homes in Franklin, Kentucky. No one was killed, but much was lost in the resulting fire, some $25,000 in cash, part of a considerable booty which included a carpetbag containing ten thousand dollars worth of vouchers and other valuable papers.

When the L&N Railroad offered a $10,000 reward for the capture of the guilty parties, one of the robbers, Captain King’s brother, Harvey—perhaps interested in keeping the reward for himself—ratted out the others. That weekend, Harvey King would turn up dead.

The remaining 12 men were apprehended, arrested, and charged with murder, armed robbery, and derailment of a train. The murder trial was held first. King and another of the robbers, Abraham Owens, were convicted of the murder of Harvey King. After two unsuccessful attempts to escape prison, the pair was hanged in June 1867.

Until the end, the two doomed men maintained their innocence. A transcript of the trial reveals questions about the timeline of the shooting of Harvey King. Some evidence suggests Captain King and Abraham Owens were nowhere near the scene of the murder. History asks the question: did the wrong two men hang?