Gilbert Frances
Gilbert Frances, a Black man, was held in the St. James Parish jail at Convent, Louisiana, with one other man. According to a New Orleans dispatch in The Herald, a mob broke into the jail in the early morning of March 1, 1896, took the two men out and lynched them in front of the courthouse. The San Francisco Call reported that a crowd of about 100 men took the men from the jail around midnight on February 28 and hanged them from a beam, and that the bodies remained hanging until afternoon. The Call's account says the lynching met the endorsement of the community, and neither report says how jail staff responded or whether the sheriff resisted.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A New Orleans dispatch reports that a mob broke into the St. James Parish jail at Convent, took Gilbert Frances and another man out, and lynched them in front of the courthouse.
Reported by: New Orleans dispatch in the newspaper (reporters).