Matt Washington
Matt Washington was held in a jail in Dyersburg, Tennessee, in October 1886, after being arrested in connection with an assault on a widow near the town. A Wichita Eagle report, reprinted from a Tennessee news dispatch, says that early the next morning a crowd of about 250 unmasked men surrounded the jail, took him by force and lynched him. The Semi-Weekly Interior Journal, publishing a brief item on October 19, 1886, describes him as taken from a jail in Dycasburg and hanged. Neither account says whether jail officers resisted, gave up the keys or handed him over.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A news dispatch reprinted in the Wichita Eagle says a crowd of about 250 unmasked men surrounded the Dyersburg, Tennessee, jail, took Matt Washington by force and lynched him.
Reported by: News dispatch from Tennessee, reprinted in the Wichita Eagle (reporters); Brief item in a 1886 newspaper (reporters).