Died in custody
Walker Dening
Walker Dening, a Black man, was held in an unoccupied house in Riverside, Walker County, Texas, after a justice's warrant brought him there from Houston. According to a Houston newspaper report carried by the St. Louis Globe-Democrat and reprinted in April 1878, he was chained by the neck to a staple in the floor. Around midnight on April 9, 1878, about twenty armed men on horseback rode into town, demanded the keys, and ordered the deputy and a railroad operator away. The account says the mob went in, struck him, and shot him until he died.
Cause of death, as reported: Killed by another person in custody