Died in jail or a lockup
Jerry Smith
Jerry Smith, a Black man, was taken from a jail in Tennessee by a crowd of farmers and lynched on April 12, 1888, according to a Memphis dispatch printed in The Morning News. A later Shenandoah Herald report, also datelined Memphis, gives the same account in brief. He was held in a jail, and the crowd took him from it and killed him.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A Memphis dispatch reports a crowd of farmers took Jerry Smith from a jail and lynched him; the jail and county are not named and officers' response is not described.
Reported by: Memphis dispatch (reporters).