Robert Williams
Bob Williams was held at the jail in Trenton, Tennessee, when masked men took him out in August 1874 and killed him. A Memphis Daily Appeal correspondent reported that his body was found shot many times in a bottom on Forked Deer Creek, about half a mile from town. Officials and the press called the killings a massacre and a lynching. Accounts disagree on how many people were killed, and a later search by the justice of the peace found no bodies at the reported spot.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched (disputed). The Memphis Daily Appeal correspondent's account of the bodies found describes gunshot wounds, and a later search by the justice of the peace found no bodies at the reported spot, so the accounts of the killing conflict.
Reported by: Memphis Daily Appeal correspondent (reporters); justice of the peace.