Bob Williams
Bob Williams, a Black man, was held in the jail at Trenton, Tennessee, in August 1874, when masked men took him and several other Black prisoners from the jail. His body was later found shot many times in a bottom on Forked Deer Creek, about half a mile from town, according to a Memphis Daily Appeal correspondent's account of the bodies found. Officials and the press called the killings a massacre and a lynching, but accounts disagree on how many people were killed. A later search by the justice of the peace found no bodies at the reported spot.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched (disputed). The Memphis Daily Appeal correspondent reported that masked men took Bob Williams from the Trenton jail and shot him, while a later search by the justice of the peace found no bodies at the reported spot, so the accounts conflict on how many were killed.
Reported by: Memphis Daily Appeal correspondent (reporters); justice of the peace.