Edward Williams
Edward Williams was held in the jail at Barboursville, West Virginia. On the night of January 22, 1876, a mob came to the jail, took him from his cell and hanged him in the courthouse yard, according to newspaper accounts of the time. The accounts differ on how the mob got him: one says the jailer was forced to give up his keys, while another says he handed them over under the mob's demands. One dispatch reports that a minister prayed with him before he was hanged and that he died about fifteen minutes later.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A mob took the man from the Barboursville, West Virginia jail and hanged him in the courthouse yard, according to a Cincinnati newspaper dispatch that the jailer handed over the keys under the mob's demands.
Reported by: Cincinnati newspaper special dispatch (reporters); Cincinnati Gazette special dispatch, reprinted in the Dallas Daily Herald (reporters); Special telegram to the Dispatch (reporters).