James Edward Brady
James Edward Brady was held in the Helena jail in Montana when a mob of about 200 masked men broke in in the early hours of October 2, 1901. The men battered the jail door and demanded the keys at gunpoint, and the jailer, under threat, got Brady out of his cell and handed him over. The mob hanged him from a telegraph pole in Haymarket Square, about three blocks from the jail. Brady told them they had the wrong man, and before he died he asked that money owed to him by the Montana Central Railroad be sent to a niece. The sheriff later cut the body down, and an investigation was reported to be planned.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A masked mob of about 200 men broke into the Helena jail, forced the jailer to hand over Brady at gunpoint, and hanged him from a telegraph pole in Haymarket Square.
Reported by: the jailer; Sheriff McConnell (the agency that held him); news reports.