Died in jail or a lockup
Will Allen
Will Allen, a Black man, was held in the Greene County jail in Springfield, Missouri. Early on Sunday, April 15, 1906, a mob took him from the jail and hanged him from the electric light tower in the public square; the Daily Morning Journal reported that the sheriff and jail staff had already been overpowered when the mob broke in, while another account says the sheriff and six armed deputies stayed inside as the mob tore out a window and cut through the steel doors. The rope broke when he first dropped, he was hanged again, and his body was then burned. Accounts say he maintained his innocence to the end, and Governor Folk called the killing murder.
Cause of death, as reported: Killed by another person in custody
News reports (20)
- Arizona Republican, April 15, 1906, page 1
- Los Angeles Herald, April 15, 1906, page 1
- The Montgomery Advertiser, April 16, 1906, page 1
- The Courier-Journal, April 16, 1906, page 1
- Los Angeles Herald, April 16, 1906, page 9
- The Daily Morning Journal And Courier, April 16, 1906, page 1
- Waterbury Evening Democrat, April 16, 1906, page 7
- Every Evening, Wilmington Daily Commercial, April 16, 1906, page 5
- Evening Star, April 16, 1906, page 11
- The Birmingham Age-Herald, April 17, 1906, page 1
- Pine Bluff Daily Graphic, April 17, 1906, page 5
- Oxford Eagle, April 19, 1906, page 1
- Owingsville Outlook, April 19, 1906, page 4
- The Bee, April 19, 1906, page 2
- The Free Lance, April 19, 1906, page 4
- Gilpin Observer, April 19, 1906, page 2
- The Aberdeen Weekly, April 20, 1906, page 1
- The Mt. Sterling Advocate, April 25, 1906, page 5
- Evening Star, August 23, 1906, page 1
- The Hattiesburg News, August 17, 1908, page 1