Jim Yearly
Jim Yearly, a Black man, was held in the Watkinsville, Georgia, jail in 1905 when a masked mob took him and other prisoners from the building shortly after midnight. According to one account, the mob demanded the keys at gunpoint, opened the cells, and shot the men at a fence near the center of town. A later report says the jailer gave in and led the mob to the cell, and that the men were hanged at a place prepared in advance and then shot. The two accounts disagree on how he was killed and on whether the jailer resisted, and the sheriff, who lived a mile away, was said not to have learned of it until morning.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched (disputed). One account says a masked mob took him from the Watkinsville jail and shot him, while another says the mob hanged him and then riddled the bodies with bullets; the jailer gave in to the mob and led them to the cell.
Reported by: news reports.