Thompson
William Thompson was being brought from Birmingham to Mobile, Alabama, for court in October 1906 when a masked mob overpowered Sheriff John F. Powers and a deputy near Magazine Point and hanged him from a live oak. The sheriff said he could not resist without military protection. Another account places the seizure at Richardson switch or Pritchard's Station, and says the mob boarded the train and took the prisoners off there. A coroner's jury returned that Thompson came to his death at the hands of parties unknown.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched (disputed). A coroner's jury returned that Thompson came to his death at the hands of parties unknown, while the sheriff said he could not resist the masked mob without military protection, and a Mobile dispatch reports about 200 masked men took the prisoners from the sheriff and hanged them.
Reported by: coroner's jury (medical examiner or coroner); Sheriff John F. Powers (the agency that held him); press dispatch from Mobile, Ala. (reporters); The Farmer And Mechanic news report (reporters).