On a January day in 1909, a dedicated lawman in Mobile, Alabama, met a violent and untimely end. Deputy Philip Fatch, a 40-year-old male, was attempting to serve a warrant for assault and battery alongside another deputy. As they approached the subject of the warrant, the man suddenly produced a handgun and began firing.
In the ensuing chaos, Deputy Fatch was struck in the abdomen, and his partner was wounded in the ankle. Despite their injuries, both deputies returned fire, hitting the assailant three times. Later that evening, on January 21, 1909, Deputy Fatch succumbed to his wound.
The story did not end there. Two nights after the fatal shooting, the man who had shot the deputies was reportedly taken from the County Jail by an angry mob. He was then hanged from a tree at the corner of Saint Emmanuel and Church Street, a grim and final chapter in the tragic death of Deputy Philip Fatch.
