P. V. Golonosov, studying local history as a staff member at the Kherson museum, recorded about 1929 peasant oral traditions regarding John Howard’s death. John Howard died in Kherson, Ukraine, in 1790. One peasant recounted a story passed down from an alleged eye witness:
There was a fog, when at daybreak, I was awakened by cries, rushed out of doors and saw Howard, fleeing on horseback for his life and shouting for help. He was surrounded by five horsemen who swords, in officers’ uniforms, who attacked him, cut him down, and cut off his head.
An alternate oral tradition of Howard’s death also was circulating among peasants near Kherson:
Howard used to pay frequent visits to a certain lady, who lived on her estate about 15 versts from Kherson, that she was very fond of him and that the murder had been committed from reasons of jealousy.
Oral tradition also conveyed that officials, when confronted by witnesses of Howard’s murder, claimed that disguised convicts killed him. Moreover, among the ballads that peasants near Kherson sang about 1929, one was understood to refer to Howard and his murder.^
General aspects of human behavior are consistent with these stories. Kherson peasants differed greatly in social rank from officers and officials from the eighteenth century through to at least the Russian Revolution of 1917. Hostility in response to social inequality is common human behavior. Sexual jealousy is also a common aspect of human behavior. Humans frequently make up and tell stories. The stories about Howard’s death are the type of stories that humans commonly imagine.
That Howard would pay frequent visits to a woman is plausible. The commemoration of Howard in Kherson was extravagant. These less appreciated facts give additional vibrancy to the folk stories of Howard’s murder.