John Skinner
John Skinner, a Black man, was held in the jail at Hopkinsville, Kentucky, in March 1888. According to the South Kentuckian, a masked mob of about one hundred men took him from his cell shortly after 1:15 a.m. on Wednesday, March 14, after the jailer, Mr. Long, first refused and then gave up the keys. The mob hanged him from a wild cherry tree on the Hopkinsville and Cadiz turnpike, and one newspaper reports that when they came for him he asked to be allowed to put on his clothes. The coroner's jury found that he died by hanging at the hands of parties unknown, and that his neck was not broken, so he died of strangulation. Newspaper accounts differ on the exact date, giving either March 13 or March 14.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A masked mob of about one hundred men took John Skinner from the Hopkinsville jail and hanged him, according to the coroner's jury, which found he died by hanging at the hands of parties unknown.
Reported by: Coroner Bell's jury (medical examiner or coroner); news reports.
Sources (7)
- Los Angeles Daily Herald, March 15, 1888, page 5
- Daily Republican, March 15, 1888, page 4
- The Salt Lake Herald, March 15, 1888, page 1
- Semi-Weekly Interior Journal, March 16, 1888, page 2
- Semi-Weekly South Kentuckian, March 16, 1888, page 3
- The Indiana State Sentinel, March 21, 1888, page 4
- The Grenada Sentinel, March 24, 1888, page 2