Will Edwards
Will Edwards, a Black man, was in the custody of Deputy Sheriff Chilton on a train from Greenville, Mississippi, when, according to a newspaper report published March 29, 1900, a crowd of about 150 men used the train's stop at the Deer Creek bridge as their chance to act. The crowd knocked the deputy down, threw a blanket over Edwards's head and took him to a railroad bridge between Greenville and Leland, where they hanged him. The account says the mob then fired many bullets into his body. The report gives no statement from the deputy or any other official about how the crowd got past him.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A Greenville, Miss., newspaper dispatch reports that a crowd of about 150 men seized Will Edwards from Deputy Sheriff Chilton on a train near Deer Creek, knocked the deputy down and hanged him from a railroad bridge between Greenville and Leland, then fired many bullets into his body.
Reported by: Greenville, Miss. newspaper dispatch (reporters).