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Kentucky’s dark gubernatorial history

by The 100 Companies

Politics can be divisive, and the 1899 Kentucky gubernatorial election was certainly no exception.

After a vote fraught with irregularities, Democrat William Goebel was declared the winner. Unwilling to accept defeat, standing Republican Governor William Taylor plotted with his secretary of state, Caleb Powers, to prevent the seemingly inevitable transfer of power. A plaque marks the spot where Goebel was mortally wounded by an assassin’s bullet fired from the nearby State building while walking to the capitol building on January 30, 1900.

Goebel died the next day — becoming the only governor in US history to have been assassinated while in office.

– Margaret Willard, The 100 Companies

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