William Turner
William Turner, a young Black man, was held at the jail next to the Helena courthouse in Phillips County, Arkansas. According to the Gazette, a mob of masked men stopped the car of deputies who were driving him toward a jail in Marianna, demanded him, and took him; the outnumbered deputies gave him up, and he was shot by the roadside. His body was taken back to Helena and burned in a park near the courthouse, and his father, August Turner, was asked to come and remove his remains. The Associated Press reported the killing and said an official investigation into it was under way.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. An Associated Press report says a mob took Turner from a deputy sheriff who was moving him to Marianna for safekeeping, shot him and burned his body in Helena; the Gazette says deputies, outnumbered, gave him up.
Reported by: Associated Press (reporters); the Gazette (reporters).