Willis Russell

Willis Russell, a Deputy US Marshal, fought against William Smoot and his Ku Klux Klan chapter in Owen County, Kentucky during the 1870s. Smoot and his boys were running amok, causing havoc and bloodshed in Franklin (Frankfort), Owen County, and Henry Counties, and Russell stopped them, even though it cost him his life.

Willis Russell was born and raised in Monterey, Kentucky, Owen County, Kentucky.

Russell served as a former Confederate soldier under John Hunt Morgan.

Bill Smoot was popular amongst the local politicians. Smoot traveled in disguise with his father, John Smoot, and his brother, John C. Smoot, and was successful in recruiting new members to their renegade Klan.

Willis Russell, September 8, 1874

Bill Smoot's Ku Klux Klan controlled local lawmen, newspapers, and the courts. Perry, the County Attorney, W. Monfort, the Commonwealth's Attorney, Judge Roberts, and the Police Judge of Owenton were either Klansmen themselves, or sympathetic to them. Secret Service documents prove that the Sheriff of Owen County was a bona fide Klan member himself. Some claim that even Democratic Governors John White Stevenson and Governor Preston Hopkins Leslie were partial to Bill Smoot's Klan too.

A man named Roberts was preparing for marriage when he was attacked and killed by a man named Salyers. Robert's father, John B. Roberts, became so overwrought by his son's death that when he saw Salyers entering a store, Roberts shot Salyers dead. Salyers was also preparing for his own marriage. John B. Roberts was later shot and killed at the village of Gratz in Owen County by William "Bill" Smoot.

After many violent Klan outrages happened in Monterey and Guestville (Henry County) in 1870, Russell was assigned by the US Marshal service to investigate as an informant. Russell, who played the role of a cashier of a country store in northern Owen County, was approached by four white men—George Hoover, John Robinson, a man named Lockart, and Benjamin Moreland—who propositioned Russell to join the "Kuklux" for the purpose of driving "the negroes" and "all Radicals who were in favor of negroes" from Kentucky. Russell declined. Later on, those same men bought some sheets for their gowns and masks as Russell's store. Afterwards the men set out to destroy the homes and property of blacks in Stamping Ground, Scott County, because they had ignored a warning to leave the area. During the raid, they shot and killed an old Black man and wounded several others. The Blacks at one place returned fire, killing one of the white-robed terrorists, who was left by them in a ditch next to the road. The next day, it was revealed that the dead KKK man was a man named Foree, a school teacher who lived near Harper's Ferry, Henry County.

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