Richard Puckett

Richard Puckett was held in the Laurens jail in Laurens, South Carolina. In the early hours of August 1913, a mob estimated at 2,000 men overpowered the sheriff and deputies, broke through a jail door and a steel cage, and took him out. The Montgomery Advertiser account says the mob took him to a railway trestle near the Laurens depot, where several hundred bullets were fired into his body, and the Birmingham Age-Herald account says he was hanged from a trestle beam. The body was left hanging for a coroner's jury to examine.

Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched

Reported by: Laurens jail accounts (mob seized him from the sheriff and deputies) (reporters).

News reports (2)

• The Montgomery Advertiser, August 12, 1913, page 2 The Montgomery Advertiser, August 12, 1913
• The Birmingham Age-Herald, August 12, 1913, page 9 The Birmingham Age-Herald, August 12, 1913