6. The Ashland Tragedy of Christmas 1881 saw three teenagers brutally murdered
Alcohol, indigestion, and forced proximity to close family make arguments a crucial component of Christmas. There are also a shocking number of murders that take place on what’s supposed to be the happiest day of the year, including this one in Ashland, Kentucky. On December 23, 1881, teenage siblings Robert and Fannie Gibbons and their friend Emma Carico, a next door neighbor, were home alone and enjoying Christmas cheer. Emma’s mother was alarmed when she saw that the Gibbons house was on fire, and gathered neighbors to help. But no one was prepared for the scene that awaited them.
The three teenagers had been brutally beaten to death with an axe and crowbar before the house was set on fire. As the town lamented this tragic and needless loss of young lives, a local bricklayer, George Ellis, confessed to the crime. He admitted that he and his fellow workers, William Neal and Ellis Craft, had broken in to the house and murdered the youngsters. Neal and Craft were hanged for their crime, but Ellis was given only a life sentence. Demanding that Ellis suffer the same fate, a lynch mob broke into Cattlesburg Jail and hanged him anyway.