"Ken McCutchan is a life-long resident of Vanderburgh County, Indiana, descended from pioneer families that entered the area in the early 1800s. He is veteran of WWII, having served with Army Corps of Engineers in both North Africa and Europe. He holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English Composition and Modern Language from the University of Evansville, a certificate in French Language and Culture from the Sorbonne in Paris, and an Honorary Doctor of Letters Degree from the University of Southern Indiana. His other books include: The Adventures of Isaac Knight, From then Til Now, Saundersville, An English Settlement, At The Bend in the River, and Dearest Lizzie. Mr. McCutchan's books may be purchased at Willard Library in Evansville, IN.

The Hume Redmon Affair.   

by Kenneth McCutchan

In the mid-19th century, there lived in Posey County, Ind., a despicable, sadistic man named Hume Redmon.

He was drunk most of the time, and he seemed to get his kicks from bragging in the saloons about how rough and tough he was.

He had married the daughter of a neighbor and had moved the poor girl into a shack several miles out in the country.

When he was in his drunken, brutish moods, he would beat her, burn her and torture her in the most fiendish ways and then threaten to kill her and her whole family if she complained to the authorities.

One night he decided that he needed more whiskey. Before leaving the cabin, he forced his poor wife to place her wrists on the windowsill, pulled the sash down on them and nailed it tightly at the top. And so she had to sit there, as in a stock, on a very cold night until he was ready to come home.

When he finally did get back, he was a sotted, raving maniac. He set upon the poor girl and choked and beat her until she was dead.

The next day Hume was arrested for murder and locked up in the Posey County jail.

When the news of what he had done spread through Mount Vernon, the citizens were so enraged that they organized a posse and stormed the jail crying, “Take him back to his cabin and burn him in it.”

The sheriff somehow managed to sneak his prisoner out before the mob got out of control and he moved him to the Vanderburgh County jail in Evansville, which was then at Third and Main Streets.

When the mob learned of this it was really enraged. Still intent upon lynching the culprit, the posse headed for Evansville in buggies, wagons and on horseback, and arrived around midnight at the courthouse, where it was confronted by the entire Evansville police force, which had been alerted that the mob was on its way.

In a skirmish that followed, some shots were fired, and a boy who was standing across the street in a group of curious spectators was killed by a stray bullet.

Several other people were wounded.

The mob, angry and out of control, finally overpowered the police and forced its way into the jail. By using sledgehammers to break down the cell door, the mob managed to get to Redmon and drag him out, still intent on carrying him back to his cabin and burning it down over his head.

The mob tied his hands behind his back and threw him into a buggy between two strong men, and they headed for Mount Vernon with the howling mob in hot pursuit.

Before they had gone two city blocks, a fire engine came clanging down the street. Someone, in the excitement, had turned in an alarm. The noise of the fire bells frightened the horse. He reared and bolted, upsetting the buggy and dumping Redmon and his guards into the street.

As the prisoner started to run away, one of the mob swung at him with a sledgehammer, bashed in his skull, ant that was the end of Hume Redmon.

The body was dragged by the heels into the courthouse.

The Hume Redmon affair was something that was talked about in both counties for a long, long time.