Owen Anderson
Owen Anderson, an 18-year-old Black man, was being held in the Leesburg jail in Virginia. Accounts say that in the early morning of November 7, 1889, a crowd got in by pretending to have a prisoner, overpowered the jailer and took his keys. The crowd dragged Anderson to a nearby derrick, hanged him and shot his body many times. The Alexandria Gazette reported that town authorities took charge of the body and that an inquest was planned, while the dates given across the accounts differ, and whether the jailer was forced to surrender the keys or handed them over is described differently in different accounts.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A crowd took Owen Anderson from the Leesburg jail, hanged him from a derrick and shot his body, according to a Washington dispatch and reports in the Alexandria Gazette.
Reported by: Washington dispatch published in The Morning News (reporters); Special dispatch to the Alexandria Gazette (reporters).