O. J. Miller
O. J. Miller was a Black man who was being taken to jail by Sheriff John Hudson when a crowd gathered at the train and followed them through the street. After the sheriff brought him into the jail, a mob returned at the agreed hour, rushed in when the chief of police was leaving, seized Miller and hanged him from a telegraph pole. The account says Sheriff Hudson pleaded that his oath bound him to deliver the prisoner to jail, but the crowd overpowered the officers. Miller had asked to be heard before the crowd and spoke of his wife, who lived on North Second Street in Springfield, Illinois.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A mob seized Miller from the jail after Sheriff John Hudson had brought him in, and hanged him from a telegraph pole.
Reported by: Sheriff John Hudson (the agency that held him). The only account of how this person died comes from the agency that held him.