Died in jail or a lockup
Pearson
Pearson was one of two men held in the jail at Springfield, Tennessee. Before dawn on June 20, 1878, a mob broke into the jail, took him and another man, Sadler, from their cells, and hanged them from a tree about three miles from town. One report says the two men were strangled and bore no marks of violence beyond those of strangulation. A later account of the same hanging, published on June 29, 1878, describes the morning of the killing and names them by surname.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched
Reported by: news reports.