William Thompson
William Thompson, a Black man, was in custody and being moved from Birmingham to Mobile, Alabama, in early October 1906. According to one account, a masked mob overpowered the sheriff and a deputy near Magazine Point and hanged him from a live oak. A Mobile dispatch placed the seizure at Richardson switch, north of Mobile, where about 200 masked men took the prisoners from Sheriff John F. Powers and hanged them, and it reported that the sheriff had feared a mob would take them. Sheriff Powers said he could not have resisted without military protection. A coroner's jury found that Thompson came to his death at the hands of parties unknown.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A masked mob overpowered the sheriff and a deputy near Magazine Point and hanged him, and a coroner's jury returned that he died at the hands of parties unknown; the sheriff said he could not resist without military protection.
Reported by: coroner's jury (medical examiner or coroner); Sheriff John F. Powers (the agency that held him); Mobile press dispatch (reporters); The Farmer And Mechanic (reporters).