John Bailey
John Bailey, a Black man, was held in the Marietta jail in Georgia in March 1900. According to the Atlanta Constitution, a mob of about 125 men demanded the jailer's keys, battered down the door in the early morning of March 18 and fired many shots into his cell. The Marietta Journal reported that the mob took him to the city park, shot him and tried to hang him, that the wire broke and officers carried him back to the jail, and that the sheriff pleaded for his life. He died on the morning of Tuesday, March 20, and his body was turned over to his parents for burial in the country. Accounts differ on whether the jailer gave up the keys or the sheriff tried to stop the mob.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched
Reported by: Atlanta Constitution special dispatch (reporters); Marietta Journal (reporters).