Deaths in Custody
Died in jail or a lockup

One of 7 people whose names were not reported

died November 17, 1871 · Clark County, Indiana

A Black man was one of three men held in the jail at Charleston, Indiana, when a mob came for them, according to an Indianapolis dispatch printed in the Shenandoah Herald. About 150 men in disguise took the three from the jail around two in the morning on November 17, 1871, and hanged them from a tree about half a mile from town. The mob, not any court or officer, carried out the killings.

Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A mob broke open the Charlestown jail, took three men including Davis and hanged them.

Reported by: news reports.

News report