David Johnson
David Johnson was held in the Piedmont jail on September 14, 1886, when a crowd of citizens overpowered the jailer and took him out, according to the West Virginia Argus and the Wheeling Register. The Register's Piedmont correspondent reports that the group took him to the bridge over the Potomac and hanged him there, and that the fall broke his neck before his body was carried away by the river current. Neither paper says whether the jailer resisted or handed over the keys.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A special correspondent to the Wheeling Register reports that a crowd of citizens overpowered the jailer at the Piedmont jail, took David Johnson to the Potomac bridge and hanged him.
Reported by: Wheeling Register special correspondent (reporters).