Jeff King, “The most handsome and also the worst young man in Shelby County.”

Jeff King grew up on a farm in Shelby County. In 1822, he decided to work his way to New Orleans, LA, as a laborer on a barge traveling down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. It wasn’t long after Jeff reached his destination that he ended up flat broke, so he chose to walk back to Kentucky.

While trudging through the swamps of Louisiana, he happened upon a runaway slave. Perhaps out of loneliness, Jeff convinced the young man to accompany him on his trek back to Shelby County, promising him freedom upon arrival. King agreed that should anyone ask, he would explain that the young man was his property.

The two made it back to the family farm unscathed, and the young man continued to keep company with Jeff. However, Jeff was not a financially responsible individual. Within a year, Jeff was having money troubles again and devised a plan to sell the runaway slave. When the young man got wind of King’s scheme, he threatened to blow the whistle on the whole affair.

A short time later, the body of the slave was found in the woods, somewhere near Benson Pike with a gunshot wound to the head. He was last seen walking to Frankfort with Jeff King.

Jeff was found guilty of the young slave’s murder and was hung from the gallows (located where the Shelby County Fairgrounds is today), on the afternoon of Halloween, 1823.