Died in jail or a lockup
John Williams
John Williams, a Black man, was held in the jail at Texarkana and taken to Naples, Texas, for a preliminary hearing, with the district attorney and the sheriff accompanying him. After a magistrate ordered him held without bail, a mob took him from the officers and hanged him from a tree near the depot in Naples. Newspaper accounts give his death as May 6 or May 13, 1908, and the two dates conflict. A brief item in another paper reported only that he was taken from the officers holding him and hanged by a mob.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched
Reported by: news reports.