Opened the Jail to the Lynchers

A black man is lynched under “peculiar circumstances” in his jail cell, leaving the officials at the jail confused.

Bill Wilson (colored) was lynched here to-day under peculiar circumstances Last Tuesday Wilson was arrested in the Hermanville district on a charge of attempted criminal assault. This afternoon the jailer, upon entering Wilson’s cell, discovered the prisoner hanging to the county gallows, with several bullet-wounds in his neck and shoulders.
The coroner’s jury returned a verdict of death by hanging and shooting by unknown parties. The execution took place so quietly that none of the officials knew what was going on.

“Opened the Jail to the Lynchers,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed December 7, 2025, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/1050.