John Taliaferro
Taliaferro, a Black man, was held in the Martinsburg jail in West Virginia in August 1874. The Clarke Courier reported that a masked crowd broke in during the early hours of August 14, forced the deputy sheriff to surrender the keys at gunpoint and took him from his cell. The crowd drove him about a mile out of town and hanged him from a tree at a railroad crossing. A coroner's jury, as reported by the Martinsburg Independent, found that he died at the hands of an organized band of men it could not identify. The Shenandoah Herald reported that he asserted his innocence to the last.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A masked crowd broke into the Martinsburg jail, forced the deputy sheriff to surrender the keys at gunpoint, and hanged him; a coroner's jury found he died at the hands of an organized band of men unknown to the jury.
Reported by: Martinsburg Independent (reporters); coroner's jury (medical examiner or coroner).