In the town of Swainsboro, Georgia, on a spring day, the course of justice took a violent and unexpected turn. On Saturday, May 13, 1911, Deputy Sheriff R. Benton Woods of the Emanuel County Sheriff's Office was on duty when the city marshal was escorting a prisoner to the local jail. As Deputy Woods approached the two individuals, the prisoner suddenly brandished a pistol. Without warning, he fired at the deputy, the gunshot fatally wounding the lawman.
A chaotic gunfight erupted in the moments that followed. In the exchange of fire, the suspect was shot three times, and another man was also killed. The wounded suspect was then taken into custody and secured in the jail.
The story, however, did not end with the suspect's capture. The following day, a mob of more than one hundred armed men, incensed by the killing of the deputy, gathered with a grim purpose. They stormed the jail, overpowering any resistance, and seized the suspect from his cell. The mob then took the law into their own hands, hanging the man from the nearest tree and riddling his body with bullets, a brutal end to a violent chapter in the town's history.
