Wade Hamilton
Wade Hamilton, a Black man, had worked along the railroad east of Rock Springs, Wyoming, and according to the Rock Springs Miner he had no friends in the area, so the county buried him. In December 1917 he was held in the Rock Springs city jail, where shortly after midnight on December 12 three men broke into the jail office, took keys from a desk drawer, and removed him from his cell. The Rock Springs Miner, citing other prisoners and the officers' investigation, reports that his body was found the next morning in a garden on Elk Street with his hands tied, a rope around his neck and bullet wounds, and suggests he was dropped from a railroad bridge during an attempted hanging and then shot while fleeing. Officers said they could not identify the three men, no one was charged with his killing.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched (disputed). Three men took Wade Hamilton from the Rock Springs city jail after overpowering the jailer and killed him; the Rock Springs Miner, citing other prisoners, says they tried to hang him and then shot him, while other accounts say he was hanged, and Black residents demanded a full investigation.
Reported by: Rock Springs Miner (reporters); other prisoners in the Rock Springs city jail (witnesses); Rock Springs police officers (the agency that held him); Black residents of Cheyenne and Rock Springs (advocates).
Sources (12)
- The Ogden Standard, December 12, 1917, page 11
- The Laramie Republican, December 12, 1917, page 1
- Pine Bluff Daily Graphic, December 13, 1917, page 5
- Rock Springs Miner, December 14, 1917, page 1
- The Denver Star, December 15, 1917, page 1
- The Laramie Republican, December 15, 1917, page 7
- Pinedale Roundup, December 20, 1917, page 7
- The Lusk Herald And The Van Tassell Pioneer, January 3, 1918, page 1
- The Wheatland World, January 4, 1918, page 6
- The Crook County Monitor, January 10, 1918, page 7
- The Saratoga Sun, January 31, 1918, page 2
- The story of a Rock Springs lynching