HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
On February 18, 1890, the only Hatfield convicted in the Hatfield-McCoy Feud was publicly hanged on Kentucky Avenue—an execution many historians call a legal scapegoating
Kentucky Avenue, Pikeville, KY 41501
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
No admission; public street and historical marker
Access
Wheelchair OK
Flat urban street environment
Equipment
Photos OK
Hatfield-McCoy Feud · Pike County Legal History · Kentucky Capital Punishment History · Appalachian History
The Hatfield-McCoy Feud—one of the most documented family conflicts in American history—reached its judicial end in Pikeville, the Pike County seat, during the late 1880s. Eight Hatfield-aligned men were tried for the January 1888 massacre that killed three McCoy family members; seven received life sentences, and one, Ellison 'Cotton Top' Mounts, was sentenced to death.
Ellison Mounts, described in contemporary accounts as intellectually disabled, was hanged on Kentucky Avenue on February 18, 1890. Public executions were illegal in Kentucky at the time, but local officials permitted the spectacle. Crowd estimates ranged between five and six thousand people—extraordinary for a county seat of Pikeville's size. Mounts's reported last words, 'The Hatfields made me do it,' have been quoted in every major account of the feud and remain contested by historians who note his limited capacity to understand his own trial.
A historical marker erected by the Kentucky Historical Society on Kentucky Avenue identifies the approximate location of the gallows. The site is documented on the Clio platform under the entry 'Feudists on Trial and the Hanging of Ellison Cottontop Mounts.' West Virginia Public Broadcasting covered the anniversary of the hanging in detail, drawing on primary feud scholarship. Most historians who have written about the feud—including Altina Waller in her foundational work—argue Mounts was made a scapegoat, his execution serving as a symbolic close to a conflict that had destabilized the region for over a decade.
Sources
The public hanging of Ellison 'Cotton Top' Mounts drew crowds from across the region, and accounts written in the years after describe witnesses who claimed to have felt the weight of what they saw. His last words became a fixed point in feud mythology—repeated in newspaper accounts, regional histories, and oral tradition.
Paranormal claims attached to the Kentucky Avenue site are minor compared to the location's historical gravity. Some Pikeville locals report a general unease around the block associated with the gallows, and the hanging has been folded into regional ghost tour narratives about Pike County's violent past. The primary draw is historical: a documented execution site connected to one of America's most chronicled rural feuds, where a man many historians believe was mentally incapable of full criminal culpability was put to death in front of thousands.
Notable Entities
A historical marker on Kentucky Avenue commemorates the 1890 public hanging of Ellison 'Cotton Top' Mounts, the sole Hatfield family member tried and executed for crimes connected to the Hatfield-McCoy Feud. The site is part of Pikeville's larger Hatfield-McCoy heritage trail.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Kansas City, MO
On June 17, 1933, gunmen ambushed a federal law-enforcement party in the south parking lot of Kansas City Union Station, killing four officers — including FBI Special Agent Raymond Caffrey — and the prisoner they were transporting, escaped bank robber Frank Nash. The FBI attributed the attack primarily to Vernon Miller and, controversially, to Pretty Boy Floyd and Adam Richetti. The killings outraged Congress and directly prompted legislation granting FBI agents the permanent authority to carry firearms and make arrests.
Pikeville, KY
Pikeville served as the legal center of the Hatfield-McCoy Feud, hosting feud-related trials at the Pike County Courthouse and witnessing the 1890 public hanging of Ellison 'Cotton Top' Mounts, the last feud-related execution. The Big Sandy Heritage Center Museum anchors the self-guided trail with the world's largest collection of feud artifacts.
Harlan, KY
Constructed 1918–1922 in Beaux-Arts limestone, the Harlan County Courthouse served as the legal center of 'Bloody Harlan'—the coal-mining county that saw decades of labor violence and union suppression. The courthouse jail housed prisoners on the top floor while trials ran in the floors below; at least one defendant, Manzo Shepherd, was shot and killed in the courtroom during his own murder trial.