R. H. Harwell
R. H. Harwell was held in the Pontotoc County jail in Ada, Oklahoma, when a mob broke down the jail doors early on the morning of April 18, 1909. According to The Guthrie Daily Leader, the mob took him from his cell and hanged him from the rafters of a nearby barn. The paper reported that the sheriff was overpowered or could not stop the mob, which came determined and refused to parley. Sheriff Smith reached the barn about seven in the morning and cut him down.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A 1909 news account says a mob broke into the Pontotoc County jail in Ada, took him from his cell and hanged him from a barn's rafters, and that the sheriff could not stop them.
Reported by: news reporting in the 1909 accounts (reporters).