John McDowell
John McDowell, a Black man, was being held in the Bowling Green jail. The Austin Weekly Statesman reported that on the morning of July 1, 1883, a mob forcibly took him from the jail and hanged him from a tree. The Fort Worth Daily Gazette reported that six armed men demanded the jail keys and that the jailer gave them up. Accounts differ on the size of the mob, putting it at 75 to 100 men in one report and several hundred in another. A Lancaster Daily Intelligencer telegraphic report dates the killing to July 1 or 2, 1883, and says a mob of masked men lynched him.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A mob of masked men took John McDowell from the Bowling Green jail in Kentucky and hanged him from a tree, and a report says the jailer gave up the keys to six armed men.
Reported by: Lancaster Daily Intelligencer (reporters); news reports.