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Died in jail or a lockup

One of 3 people whose names were not reported

died December 2, 1854 · Brownville jail, Nemaha County, Nebraska

A man held in the log jail at Brownville, Nebraska, was one of three men there on the night of December 2, 1854, when a group of masked men took him from the jail. According to a deathbed statement by one participant, recounted to Rev. Lawrence Gassman and published in the San Francisco Examiner, the men were led to the river, forced through a hole in the ice and drowned. The sheriff was reported to have said that masked men had taken the men from the jail. The man's name is not given in the accounts.

Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A participant in the mob, as recounted in a statement to Rev. Lawrence Gassman, said masked men forced him through a hole in the river ice and drowned him after the others were taken from the Brownville jail.

Reported by: a participant in the mob, as recounted to Rev. Lawrence Gassman and published in the San Francisco Examiner (witnesses).

News report