Joseph Vermilion was a 27-year-old white man

lynched Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, punish a convicted transgressor, or intimidate people. It can also be an ex ...

December 3, 1889 for the crime of arson in

Upper Marlboro, Maryland Upper Marlboro, officially the Town of Upper Marlboro, is the seat of Prince George's County, Maryland. Aso of the 2020 census, the population was 652. although Greater Upper Marlboro is many times larger. Etymology Upper Marlboro was establ ...

. Vermillion had been jailed in Upper Marlboro for a series of arsons involving barns filled with

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

and houses in Prince George's County. At 2:30am, a band of masked men broke into the jail, overpowered the jailkeeper, and left with Vermillion. Vermillion was dragged to the "iron bridge just between the town and the railroad depot" and hanged. His body was left hanging from the bridge until the coroner's investigation. That same bridge was used 5 years later in another lynching, of Stephen Williams, by a similar band of masked men.

External links

Resources relating to Joe Vermillion at the Maryland State Archives

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vermillion, Lynching of Joseph 1889 murders in the United States Lynching deaths in Maryland 1889 deaths 1889 in Maryland Prince George's County, Maryland December 1889 events