Willie Leaphart
Willie Leaphart, a Black man whom one account gives as eighteen, was held in the Lexington jail in South Carolina. Sheriff Drafts said in a telegram to the governor that in the early hours of May 5, 1890, a mob broke down the door of his sleeping quarters, took the keys from him by force, and opened the jail. A witness said Leaphart fought back with an iron rod and wounded one of the group before the men shot him many times in his cell. The sheriff said he had been compelled to give up the keys, and a coroner's jury was impaneled to view the body.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. Sheriff Drafts telegraphed the governor that a posse took the keys from him by force and shot Leaphart in his cell, and a witness said Leaphart fought back with an iron rod before he was killed.
Reported by: Sheriff G. S. Drafts (telegram to the governor) (the agency that held him); a witness; coroner's inquest (medical examiner or coroner); Waterbury Evening Democrat AP dispatch (reporters).