Richard Hawkins
Richard Hawkins and Ernest Ponder, both Black and about 18 years old, were held in the Leon County jail in Tallahassee, Florida. In the early morning of July 20, 1937, four masked men took the two young men from the jail, and their bodies were found at daybreak on the Tallahassee-Jacksonville highway, riddled with bullets. Accounts differ on how the men got the keys: one says the night sergeant was forced to take them to the jail, and another says an officer at the station was held at gunpoint and locked in a cell. Governor Fred P. Cone called the killings murder rather than a lynching and ordered an investigation. The jailer said he was asleep in the building and woke to the sergeant's calls for help.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched (neglect alleged). Four masked men took Hawkins and Ponder from the jail and shot them, and Governor Cone called it murder rather than a lynching, while the jailer said he was asleep and woke only to the night sergeant's calls for help, so the jail's supervision failed.
Reported by: Jailer at the Tallahassee city-county jail (the agency that held him); Sheriff Stoutamire's inquiry (the agency that held him); Governor Fred P. Cone (outside investigators); Newspaper accounts of the killings (reporters).