A 14-year-old girl raped and murdered, her body eaten by hogs. A county outraged. Suspects rounded up and arrested. A dramatic hearing. A mob. Two young men lynched. A death-bed confession. This is the story the Secaur-McLeod-Kimmel murders, a murder-mystery without a clear culprit.

Below you will find a variety of materials related to the case. I recommend reading the summary first and then wading into the various pieces of evidence provided. The typescripts of the evidence (as well as the pictures of three of the main figures in the case) come from J.H. Day's Lynched! (1872), probably the most authoritative (which is not to say unbiased) source available. Much of Day's book was copied directly from earlier accounts published in the Mercer County Standard, and comparison between those two sources and material also published in the Celina Journal leads me to believe that the evidence provided from the hearing and from the various affidavits can be trusted as authentic (which does not mean that what they say is true, mind you).

This is a draft of this site. Please check back later for updates and improvements. I have much more material than I had time to include, here.

Complete text of Lynched! (a very large file)

Copyright 2000. David Kimmel. Heidelberg College. Tiffin, Ohio. All rights reserved.