John Keller
John Keller was being held in the jail in Phoenix, Arizona, in August 1879. According to the Daily Republican, early on the morning of August 22, a mob took him and another man from the jail and hanged them in a public square. A dispatch reprinted in the Helena Weekly Herald said a vigilance committee marched to the jail, took him out, and hanged him from a tree on the plaza, and that the crowd then warned a number of people to leave town. Neither account says whether jail staff resisted the crowd or handed the men over.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A Phoenix dispatch reported that a vigilance committee took John Keller from the Phoenix jail and hanged him from a tree on the plaza.
Reported by: Daily Republican (reporters); A Phoenix, Arizona dispatch as reported in the San Francisco dispatch (reporters).