Gill Roland
Gill Roland, about 19 according to one account, was held in the Jackson County jail at Newport while awaiting trial. Shortly after midnight on October 19, 1880, a group of masked men failed to obtain the jail keys, broke open the doors, and took him and John Dickinson from the jail. They carried the two men about a mile out of town and hanged Gill Roland there. A Jacksonport report gives the date as October 5, 1880, and says the mob broke the doors open with sledge hammers and chisels and hanged the prisoners from a tree about a mile from town.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched (disputed). One newspaper account says masked men broke into the Jacksonport jail and hanged him from a tree, while a later report says he may have been shot during an escape attempt and then retaken.
Reported by: news reports.