Name not reported
A Black man held in the jail at Amite, Louisiana, was taken from custody in late December 1879 by a mob of about fifty men, according to newspaper reports. A special telegram to the New Orleans Times said the mob demanded and obtained the keys from Sheriff F. P. Mix, and that four men held in the jail were taken about half a mile from town and hanged. Another account says the men were shot to death by the mob, and the telegram reports that the bodies were lying close together, riddled with bullets, with ropes around the necks of three of them. The accounts differ on how each man died.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A Staunton Spectator report says a mob of about fifty shot four men taken from the Amite jail, and a telegram to the New Orleans Times says the mob obtained the keys from Sheriff F. P. Mix and hanged four men about half a mile from town.
Reported by: Staunton Spectator, citing a news report (reporters); Special telegram to the N. O. Times (reporters).