Jim Turpiu
Jim Turpin, a Black man (spelled Turpiu in one account), was taken from a jail and hanged by a mob, according to a short 1876 dispatch in The Weekly Democratic Statesman. A brief wire report in the American Citizen places the killing at the jail in Danville, Virginia, on April 16, 1876. The jail held him when the mob took him from it and hanged him. Neither report says how the mob got into the jail or whether jail officers resisted, gave up the keys, or handed him over.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A mob took him from a jail and hanged him, according to an 1876 newspaper dispatch and a wire report that places the jail at Danville, Virginia.
Reported by: 1876 newspaper dispatch datelined April 17, 1876 (reporters); 1876 wire report from Danville, Virginia (reporters).