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Died in jail or a lockup

George Graham

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

Springfield, Missouri dispatches described George E. Graham as a revivalist well known in the West, and one dispatch says he went to his death without struggle. He was held in the jail at Springfield on April 27, 1886, when a mob of two to three hundred men broke in, took him from his cell, and drove him to a scrub oak outside town, where he was hanged. The sheriff said he was overpowered and did not have the keys, while other accounts say the sheriff refused the mob's demands or that his wife handed over the keys. A coroner's jury found that he died of strangulation at the hands of persons unknown. Some reports give April 26 as the date of death, but most give April 27, 1886.

Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. Newspaper dispatches say a masked mob took him from the Springfield, Missouri jail and hanged him, and a Greene County coroner's jury found he died of strangulation at the hands of persons unknown.

Reported by: Springfield dispatches (reporters); Springfield Weekly Republican (reporters); Sheriff Donnell (the agency that held him); Greene County coroner's jury (medical examiner or coroner).

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