Magruder Fletcher
Magruder Fletcher, a Black man, was held in the county jail on Virginia's Eastern Shore, in Accomac or Accomack, according to the accounts. The reports say about seventy-five to one hundred masked men came to the jailer's house in the early hours of March 14, 1889, and demanded the keys. The jailer first refused, and one report says he gave them up only after being threatened and urged by a deputy sheriff. The men took Fletcher from his cell, hanged him from a pine tree near the road and shot him, and a coroner's jury found he died at the hands of persons unknown, though the papers differ on the exact date, the village and the number of men.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A coroner's jury found Magruder Fletcher was strangled and shot by persons unknown after a mob took him from the Accomack County jail, Virginia.
Reported by: coroner's jury (medical examiner or coroner); The Daily Times, citing a Norfolk correspondent's telegram (reporters).