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Died in jail or a lockup

William Hamilton

died August 5, 1903 · Asotin County Jail, Asotin County, Washington

William Hamilton was a farmer, and before he died he asked that his watch and trinkets be given to his father and mother, a request that newspaper reports say the mob promised to honor. He was held in the Asotin County jail in Washington. Newspaper reports say that shortly after midnight on August 5, 1903, a mob of more than 1,000 men overpowered the deputies Sheriff Richards had sworn in to guard the jail, took the jailer's keys, sawed through the bars of his cell and removed him. The sheriff tried to stop the crowd but could not hold it back, and the mob hanged Hamilton from a guy wire or telegraph pole at First and Fillmore streets in Asotin.

Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A masked mob of more than a thousand men took William Hamilton from the Asotin County jail in August 1903 and hanged him; the sheriff's deputies were overpowered and the keys taken.

Reported by: news reports of the lynching.

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