Alonzo Holly
Alonzo Holly, a Black man, was held in the Perry County jail in Pinckneyville, Illinois, in February 1888. According to The Atlanta Constitution, a small mob came to the jail in the early hours of February 11, broke through the front door after the sheriff tried to turn them back, and the jailer unlocked it; the men took the keys, covered the officers with guns, removed Holly from his cell and hanged him from a maple tree near the building. The Evening Bulletin, however, dates the killing to February 15, reporting that about twenty masked men took him from the jail after an earlier attempt failed when the sheriff had taken him to Belleville. The two accounts differ on the date and on how the mob reached him.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. The Chronicle's Duquoin correspondent reported that a mob of masked men took Holly from the Perry County jail and hanged him from a tree.
Reported by: The Chronicle's Duquoin, Ill., special correspondent (reporters).