Died in jail or a lockup
William McClellan
William McClellan was held at the jail at Martinsburg, Kentucky, when, according to a brief Daily Gazette news item, a mob of about two hundred men took him from the jail on Monday night, October 20, 1879, and lynched him. The item does not say whether the jailer or sheriff resisted the mob, gave up the keys, or handed him over. The item's OCR text garbles the surname, so the spelling McClellan is a reconstruction that should be checked against other sources.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. The Daily Gazette reported that a mob of about two hundred men took William McClellan from the jail at Martinsburg, Kentucky, and killed him on the same night as John W. Kendall.
Reported by: The Daily Gazette (reporters).