Nelson Howard
Nelson Howard was held in the jail at Mound City, Illinois, in July 1883. According to the Huntsville Gazette, about twenty-five or thirty masked men arrived by hand-car, overpowered the jailer, broke down the jail door with a spike hammer and took him from his cell. The men shot him several times and hanged him from a tree about fifty yards from the jail, and the Gazette account says he was likely already dead before the hanging. The Stephens City Star reports only that a mob took him from the jail and hanged him, without saying how the mob got in or what jail officers did.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A mob of about twenty-five or thirty masked men broke into the Mound City, Illinois jail, overpowered the jailer, took Nelson Howard from his cell and hanged him from a tree.
Reported by: news reports.