ADAIR COUNTY NEWS

 

The Citizen (Berea, Ky.), September 15, 1904 Postmaster Killed by a Farmer Liberty, Ky., Sept. 14--Rev. H.W. Hatter, a merchant and postmaster of Poplar Hill, this county, was shot and instantly killed by Johnson Elliott, a neighboring farmer. The two men quarreled over a road site.              * * * The Semi-weekly Interior Journal (Stanford, Ky.), September 16, 1904 (in the Middleburg, Casey Co., community newsletter) Our people were shocked early Tuesday morning when the wires brought the intelligence of one of the most shocking tragedies that has occurred in our county for many years, when Johnson Elliott, a neighboring farmer, shot and killed Rev. Hardin W. Hatter in the woods near Poplar Hill. * * * The Interior Journal (Stanford, Ky.), April 14, 1905 The trial of Johnson Elliott for killing Hardin W. Hatter is in progress at Liberty. There are eight lawyers employed and some 50 or more witnesses have been summoned. Judge M.C. Saufley, of this place [Stanford], is leading counsel for Elliott. LATER.--Elliott was given a life sentence. The case will be appealed. * * * The Adair County News, April 19, 1905 Johnson Elliott, who killed Harden Hatter at Poplar Hill, Casey county, last year, was tried at Liberty last week, and given a life sentence. The dead man was an excellent citizen and quite popular. There was no provocation for the murder, as we gather, from reading comments of it. * * * The Adair County News, April 26, 1905 (in the Middleburg, Casey Co., community newsletter) A large number of our people attended the trial of Johnson Elliott, who killed Harden Hatter last fall. The jury sent him to the penitentiary for life. * * * The Interior Journal, June 6, 1905 A prisoner in the Liberty jail, hearing a noise in the cell of Johnson Elliott, discovered he had hanged himself with a wire. Before the jailer could be summoned to open the cell Elliott was nearly dead. After being revived he attempted to seize a pistol and kill himself. Elliott is confined to jail pending appeal from a life sentence for killing Hardin Hatter. * * * The Interior Journal, April 3, 1906 Judgment of the Casey circuit court in the case of Johnson Elliott against the Commonwealth was upheld by the court of appeals. Elliott was found guilty of the murder of Mr. H.W. Hatter and his punishment fixed at confinement for life in the penitentiary.