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| The Hanging of Ellison Mounts |
Mounts, thought by many to be the illegitimate son of Ellison Hatfield was poor, mentally challenged, and was in all likelihood a scapegoat for the bloodshed between the Hatfields and McCoys.
Lacking the funds for a defense attorney, his lawyer was court appointed, and Mounts, seeing that the other men received life in prison for their part in the raid, pleaded guilty thinking life was the worst he would receive.
Shocked by the sentence, his lawyer attempted a plea change, but local sentiment and the courts were against him and were looking for a visible end to the Hatfield/McCoy drama. Poor Ellison Mounts went to the gallows and his final words to the crowd were, "The Hatfields made me do it!".
The saga of the Hatfields and McCoys was over.