Jim Shonts
Jim Shonts was one of three Black men held in the Tunica, Mississippi jail in October 1907. Early one morning a mob took him from his cell and hanged him, with accounts placing the hanging at a telegraph pole near the depot or at a barn on the edge of town. The sheriff said he was away and did not know when the men were taken, and he believed the captors used jail keys. A coroner's inquest did not assign responsibility for the lynching.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A mob took Jim Shonts from the Tunica, Mississippi jail and hanged him; the sheriff said he was away and did not know when the prisoners were taken, and a coroner's inquest did not assign responsibility for the lynching.
Reported by: Tunica County sheriff (the agency that held him); coroner's inquest (medical examiner or coroner); Mobile dispatch citing a special from Tunica, Miss. (reporters).