Tom Bowen
Tom Bowen, a Black man, was held in the Lincoln County jail at Brookhaven, Mississippi, in June 1895. According to the accounts, a crowd surrounded Sheriff McNair as he drove Bowen back from a preliminary hearing before a justice of the peace, seized Bowen from the wagon and hanged him from a limb a short distance away. One report says the sheriff said he would defend his prisoner and was overpowered, while another says he tried to use his pistol and was overpowered. A coroner's jury on June 28 found that Bowen died at the hands of a mob whose members the jury could not identify.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A coroner's jury found Bowen died at the hands of a mob whose members were unknown to the jury, after the sheriff was overpowered while taking him to a hearing.
Reported by: Coroner Phillips' jury of inquest (medical examiner or coroner); Times-Democrat special report (reporters).