Murray Burton
Murray Burton, a Black man, was one of three men held in the Schley County jail at Ellaville, Georgia, and had not yet been tried. According to the Americus Times-Recorder, about twenty-five masked men took the three from the jail shortly after midnight on April 8, 1911, and the jailer said he was powerless to resist and surrendered the men. The paper reported that the men were led to a nearby pine orchard and shot. The Richmond Virginian reported instead that about one hundred men overpowered the jailer and dragged the prisoners from their cells, that Burton and another man were hanged from trees, and that a man who ran was shot. Accounts differ on the number of attackers and on how the men were killed.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched (disputed). Two accounts differ on the details: one says about twenty-five masked men took the men from the jail and shot them in a pine orchard, with the jailer surrendering them; the other says a mob of about one hundred overpowered the jailer and hanged two of the men on trees, with Burton's death described among the killings.
Reported by: Jailer Baugh (the agency that held him); news reporting of the Ellaville lynching (reporters).