Taylor Charleston
Taylor Charleston, a 33-year-old Black man, was described in the Birmingham Age-Herald as having more than average intelligence, and he spoke of his faith before his death. He was hanged on September 5, 1902, in the northeast corner of the Jefferson County jail yard in Birmingham, where he gave a final statement and prayed before the trap was sprung. Physicians Heacock and McAdory and City Physician Wheelan said the drop fractured his neck, and they pronounced him dead about thirteen minutes later while roughly 150 people, including visiting sheriffs and deputies, watched. His body was released to his brothers, one of them a preacher, for burial.
Cause of death, as reported: Executed by the state
Reported by: Drs. Heacock and McAdory and City Physician Wheelan (medical examiner or coroner).