Felix Wyley
Felix Wyley, a Black man, was held in the jail at Tiptonville, Tennessee, in July 1881. According to a Memphis Daily Appeal correspondent, a crowd came to the jail on Sunday night, July 24, and demanded that Sheriff Pittman surrender him; the sheriff asked them to wait until the next day, and his appeals held them off that night. On Monday night, July 25, between 8 and 9 o'clock, a mob took Wyley from the jail and hanged him, the report says. A Louisville Commercial dispatch described about 150 masked men taking him from the jail and leaving his body hanging from a tree.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A newspaper correspondent and a Louisville Commercial dispatch report that a mob took Felix Wyley from the Tiptonville, Tennessee jail and hanged him, while accounts differ on the details of how the jail was breached.
Reported by: Special to the Appeal (newspaper correspondent) (reporters); Louisville Commercial dispatch from Tiptonville, Tenn. (reporters).