Benjamin Jones
Benjamin Jones, a man of 70, was held in the Clay County jail in Liberty, Missouri, from the Sunday before his death. The Chanute Times reported that about seventy-five masked men broke down the jail door, took him from his cell and hanged him from the portico of the courthouse, and that the jailer did not stop them. The Phillipsburg Herald placed the attack shortly before midnight, and a pistol ball in the back is also given as a cause of death. Accounts give September 11 and September 12, 1898 as the date of death.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A mob of about 75 masked men broke into the Clay County jail in Liberty, Missouri, took him from his cell and hanged him from the courthouse portico; the account says the jailer did not stop them.
Reported by: Clay County jail in Liberty, Missouri (jailer, as reported in the newspaper account) (reporters); Newspaper accounts of the 1898 Liberty, Missouri lynching (reporters).