Alex Crawford
Alex Crawford was held in the jail at Winona, Mississippi. According to newspaper dispatches, most dated March 7, 1887, a large crowd broke into the jail, took him from his cell and hanged him from a railroad trestle near town. The Grenada Sentinel, reprinting a Memphis dispatch, reported that jail officers offered resistance before the crowd got in, and that some older citizens urged that he be tried by law but were overruled. According to the same report, he sent word to his wife that he died game, and his brother later cut his body down and took it home for burial.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A mob took Alex Crawford from the Winona, Mississippi jail and hanged him from a railroad trestle near town, according to a Memphis newspaper dispatch; the accounts do not say whether jail staff resisted or handed over the keys.
Reported by: Memphis Avalanche special dispatch, reprinted in The Grenada Sentinel (reporters); Winona Avalanche, as reported by St. Louis paper (reporters).
Sources (14)
- Sacramento Daily Record-Union, March 8, 1887, page 1
- Eureka Daily Sentinel, March 8, 1887, page 2
- Fort Worth Daily Gazette, March 9, 1887, page 7
- Daily Evening Bulletin, March 9, 1887, page 4
- Union County Courier, March 9, 1887, page 1
- The Weekly Sentinel, March 10, 1887, page 4
- The Emporia Weekly News, March 10, 1887, page 1
- The Hickman Courier, March 11, 1887, page 1
- The Grenada Sentinel, March 12, 1887, page 8
- The Southern Herald, March 12, 1887, page 2
- Macon Beacon, March 12, 1887, page 1
- Western Kansas World, March 12, 1887, page 2
- Narragansett Herald, March 12, 1887, page 4
- Western Kansas World, March 19, 1887, page 6