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Died in jail or a lockup

George E. Graham

died April 27, 1886 · Greene County Jail, Greene County, Missouri

George E. Graham, a revivalist known in the West according to one dispatch, was held in the Greene County jail at Springfield, Missouri. In the early morning of April 27, 1886, a masked mob overpowered the guards and sheriff, took the keys, and removed him from his cell. Sheriff Donnell said he was overpowered and had no knowledge of how the mob got in, while the Abilene Reflector reported that the men took a key from the sheriff's wife to open a locked drawer. The mob hanged Graham from a scrub oak about two miles north of the city, and a coroner's jury returned a verdict of strangulation at the hands of persons unknown.

Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A masked mob took George E. Graham from the Springfield, Missouri jail and hanged him; the accounts differ on how many men took part and whether the sheriff gave up the keys.

Reported by: Springfield, Mo. newspaper report (reporters); Springfield dispatches (reporters); coroner's jury, Green County (medical examiner or coroner); Sheriff Donnell's statement (the agency that held him); news report of mob action; Abilene Reflector report of the lynching (reporters).

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