Thompson
William Thompson, a Black man, was in the custody of Mobile County officers and being brought from Birmingham to Mobile in October 1906. Newspaper accounts report that a masked mob of about 200 men took him from the sheriff and hanged him, placing the killing near Magazine Point, Richardson switch or Pritchard's Station. The Montgomery Advertiser reported that the sheriff said he could not have resisted without military protection. A coroner's jury returned that Thompson came to his death at the hands of parties unknown. A Farmer and Mechanic report quoted the governor as saying soldiers would have been placed on the train had it come by way of Montgomery.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A masked mob overpowered the sheriff and a deputy near Magazine Point and hanged Thompson from a live oak, according to the accounts; a coroner's jury returned that he died at the hands of parties unknown.
Reported by: Coroner's jury (medical examiner or coroner); Sheriff of Mobile County (the agency that held him); Press dispatch from Mobile, Ala. (reporters); The Farmer And Mechanic (reporters).