Died in jail or a lockup
William Allen
William Allen, a Black man, was held in the Greene County jail in Springfield, Missouri, in April 1906. In the early morning of April 15, a mob returned to the jail, took him from his cell and hanged him in the public square. Accounts say the rope broke once, and he was hanged a second time before his body was burned at the site. Newspaper accounts say the sheriff and deputies were unable to stop the mob, which had already taken and killed two other men from the same jail that night. The mob's actions were not called into question by any official account, and no official account is given for how the jail's staff responded.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched
Reported by: news reports.