The “Paw-paw tree incident” was not part of an ongoing feud, as the feud books claim. There had been no violence between the two families before August 7, 1882. Jim McCoy, under oath in Johnse Hatfield’s trial, testified that the trouble began “at the 1882 election.”
The Paw-paw incident was a classic lynching, of which there were hundreds involving white victims during the last third of the 19th century. The extra-legal punishment of someone who is suspected of committing a crime is the very definition of lynching. According to the Tuskeegee Institute, there were 64 white men lynched in 1882. No one knows anything about the other 61.
This story can be seen in my book, “Lies, Damned Lies, and Feud Lies.” https://tinyurl.com/ycqlg3oy