James Shell
James Shell was held in the jail at Bellefontaine, Ohio. On the night of September 24, 1875, a crowd of citizens broke into the jail, took him out and hanged him, according to a telegraph dispatch carried in the Wilmington Journal. The Chicago Daily Tribune reported that crowds had gathered for days beforehand and that the sheriff had summoned a guard. The dispatch said the guards made no resistance when the mob came for him.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. The Wilmington Journal's telegraph dispatch says a crowd of citizens hanged him after taking him from the jail, and the Chicago Daily Tribune reports that the guards made no resistance.
Reported by: Wilmington Journal (telegraph dispatch) (reporters); Knoxville Journal (reporters); Chicago Daily Tribune (reporters); Yankton Daily Press and Dakotaian (reporters); Columbus, Ohio newspaper item (reporters); unnamed newspaper article on the Bellefontaine lynching (reporters).