Yank Wigfall
Yank Wigfall, a Black man, died on October 2, 1912, at the Rawlins State Penitentiary in Rawlins, Wyoming. According to a wire report in the Burlington Weekly Free Press, he had been moved to the penitentiary from the county jail after a mob failed to reach him there before daylight. The report says convicts overpowered the guards and turnkey, took the keys, and hanged him over a railing into the prison rotunda, where he died of a broken neck. The report also says the prisoners made no effort to escape afterward.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A Burlington Weekly Free Press wire report from Cheyenne says fellow prisoners overpowered the guards and turnkey at Rawlins State Penitentiary, took their keys, and hanged him over a railing into the rotunda, where his neck broke.
Reported by: Burlington Weekly Free Press (wire report datelined Cheyenne, Wyo.) (reporters).