Neal and Craft were convicted in a ten-day trial and sentenced to death; they appealed the verdict.
Ellis was tried May 30, convicted, and given a life term, but a mob removed him from the jail on the night of the 31st and lynched him in Ashland.
To avoid another lynch mob threat, Craft and Neal were moved under heavy guard by the steamboat Granite State from Catlettsburg to Ashland on November 1.
They were met along the shore of Ashland by a crowd, eighteen of whom attempted to intercept the steamboat in a ferry.
Subsequent volleys from the steamboat's complement of state guards killed four people on the riverbank.