Jesse Abner Killed

The Berea News

April 26, 1907

Jesse Abner, of Leslie County, charged with others, with the assassination of Dr. B. D. Cox, in Jackson, was found dead last Thursday, one mile from Beattyville. Three bullets were found in his back, one of them piercing his heart. He had left Beattyville at 2 o'clock in the afternoon and had been slain on his way home. Several people passed along the road where Abner was lying, after he had been killed, but thinking him asleep, did not bother him. His horse was hitched close to the fence were the body lay. He is known to have had about $30, but when the body was searched he had only twenty cents, which looks like robbery was the cause of the killing.

Clay Thomas, who has confessed to the murder of Jesse Abner, was found by Deputy United States Marshal Mays, as he was returning from a moonshine raid in Owsley County, Sunday and lodged in jail at Beattyville. Thomas claims that Abner threw a rock at him, then hit him with a bottle of whiskey, knocking him from his horse, when he fired four shots at him, with a forty-five Colt's pistol, killing him instantly.