Leonard Woods
Leonard Woods, a Black man in his thirties, was being held in the Whitesburg county jail in Letcher County, Kentucky, in late November 1927. Accounts say a mob of several hundred men broke into the jail through the roof, shot off the cell locks, and took him to the Kentucky-Virginia line near Pound Gap, where he was hanged, shot and burned. The jail keeper, a woman, said the jailer had taken the keys with him, and she said she was powerless to resist. The county attorney opened an investigation and said he would protest to the governor, and officials disagree about whether the mob came mostly from Virginia or from Kentucky.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched (disputed). A mob broke into the Whitesburg jail, took Leonard Woods and lynched him, and the county attorney said he would protest to the governor if the mob came from Virginia, while the jail keeper said she was powerless to resist.
Reported by: Dickenson County Herald (reporters); Hazard Herald (reporters); county attorney Harry L. Moore; Mrs. Fess Whittaker, jail keeper (the agency that held him).