James Dougherty
James Dougherty was held in the Hot Springs county jail in Arkansas on June 27, 1903, the same day another prisoner was killed there. That night a crowd gathered outside the jail intending to lynch him, and officers were guarding the building when a message from inside reported his death. Officials said he had died by suicide, cutting his throat with flattened shoestring ends. No account in the sources describes how the jail kept watch over him before his death.
Cause of death, as reported: Died by suicide. Officials and a messenger from inside the jail reported that he cut his throat with flattened shoestring ends, and no source in these accounts disputes that account.
Reported by: Hot Springs county jail officials (the agency that held him); a messenger from inside the jail.