Sam Purple
Sam Purple was held in the jail at Jetmore, in Hodgeman County, Kansas, in November 1886. The Wichita Eagle reported that armed, masked men rode into the jail yard, overpowered the sheriff and guards, and took the keys and the prisoner, and that the sheriff was forced to give up both. Other accounts say about 100 men came to the jail on a Monday night, demanded him, took him with little resistance, and hanged him, and that he was found hanged the next morning. Newspaper accounts differ on the date of his death, giving November 8 or 9, 1886, and one places it three days after shootings in Hodgeman County.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A mob took Sam Purple from the Kansas jail where he was held after surrendering and hanged him, according to newspaper accounts from November 1886; one account says the sheriff was forced to give up the keys.
Reported by: news reporting in the New York and Kansas press, 1886 (reporters).