CRT Snapshot: Two Men Taken From Jail and Hung Along the Road

 

December 7, 1896, Across Missouri it was believed the heinousness of the crime James Nelson and James Winner were accused of justified their lynching. The two men were arrested in early November for the murder of Winner’s wife and two children. It was alleged that Winner, Nelson, and another man named Lon Lackey had used an axe and killed Mrs. Eva Winner and her two youngest children on Oct. 29

Residents had attempted to remove Lackey and Winner from the jail a week earlier but had been turned away. At 1:30 in the morning, a larger mob of approximately 250 rushed the jail and removed Winner and Nelson, Lackey having been removed to the Richmond, MO jail earlier in the day.

The mob removed the two men and crossed a bend on the Missouri River and hung the two men from a burr oak. No one reported the incident until the next morning when the sheriff passed the bodies bringing back Lackey. As news spread around the county people came to see the hanging bodies. They were cut down by the coroner who said that the deaths were caused by hanging by “Persons Unknown”.

The Richmond Conservator reported that the people of Ray County are “Peaceable and law-abiding but this heinous crime was just more than their morals could bare.”

Sources:

http://files.usgwarchives.net/mo/ray/news/richmond/winner/winner4.txt

https://www.newspapers.com/image/649167831/?terms=Lynching&match=1