J. D. Mayfield
J. D. Mayfield, a Black man from Evansville, Indiana, was held by police at the city building in Danville, Illinois, after a street shooting. On July 25, 1903, a mob of several hundred broke through the wall and door, and the officers, who had barricaded themselves inside, could not stop them. One newspaper account says the mob seized him from the officers and hanged him from a telephone pole, while another says he was found hiding in a safe and beaten to death before his body was dragged through the streets and burned. The accounts differ on how he was killed, and they differ on whether the officers resisted or handed him over.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched (disputed). One account says a mob broke into the Danville city building, seized Mayfield from officers and hanged him from a telephone pole; another says he was found hiding in a safe and beaten and stamped to death by the mob.
Reported by: newspaper report of a Danville dispatch (reporters); the Danville police officers who held him (the agency that held him).