Jerome Wilson, 30, a farmer, was shot and beaten to death by a group of men in 1935, in a jail cell in Franklinton, Washington Parish, Louisiana. At the time Wilson was being held for a criminal trial. A livestock inspector had come to Wilson’s farm to enforce a health regulation regarding the mules on the farm. Wilson ordered him off the property, and the inspector returned with the sheriff’s men, including deputy sheriff Delos C. Wood, who was killed in the ensuing gunfight. Many in the Wilson family were arrested. With a mob gathering outside the courthouse, Jerome Wilson was hastily convicted of killing deputy sheriff Delos C. Wood and sentenced to death by hanging. However, the Louisiana Supreme Court granted Wilson a new trial. Before he could be retried, though, men broke in the jail where he was being held and beat him to death. Horace Bond and Julia Bond were among a large group of prominent individuals who protested the killing of Wilson. An essay on this case, researched and authored by a CRRJ student, is available on request

Jerome Wilson