December 3, 1892, Cornelius Coffee was said to be a “Tough Colored
Man” and when the constables in the town of Keystone, West Virginia went to
arrest him for being a vagrant and creating civil disobedience while drinking
too much after his payday on November 29. Coffee shot the two officers killing
one named Dillon and wounding one named Burton.
Coffee fled catching a train into Virginia, but a conductor named
Griffith recognized him and telegraphed the sheriff in Pocahontas who arrested
Coffee. Keystone authorities were notified and Detective Eugene Robinson
escorted Coffee back to Keystone when they arrived a mob was waiting and
pulled Coffee from the train and took him to a tree near the tracks. The mob
proceeded to hang him from the tree and riddle his body with bullets.
No one was ever charged in his extra-judicial murder
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