Died in jail or a lockup
Joe Burns
Joe Burns, a Black man, was held in the Martinsburg jail in West Virginia in February 1886. Shortly after midnight, about one hundred masked men rode into town, took him from the jail and hanged him from a tree about two miles down the Winchester road, where his body was found the next morning. According to the Shenandoah Herald, officials had moved him from an upper cell to the cellar days earlier, and the mayor and other authorities had urged that the law be allowed to take its course.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A mob of about one hundred masked men took him from the Martinsburg jail and hanged him from a tree about two miles down the Winchester road.
Reported by: news reports.