In the late winter of 1900, a series of robberies had troubled the area around Emporia, Virginia. Two men, Walter Cotton and Brandt O'Grady, were identified as the culprits behind these thefts. On March 22nd of that year, Constable Welton and a local justice of the peace, a Mr. Saunders, attempted to apprehend the two suspects. During the course of this attempt to bring the men to justice, both Constable Welton and Mr. Saunders were killed. The two officers were white men carrying out their sworn duties.
Following the deaths of the lawmen, a manhunt ensued. Brandt O'Grady was the first to be captured and was placed in the jail in Emporia. His accomplice, Walter Cotton, was apprehended the next morning. Under questioning, Cotton confessed to the murders of both officers and implicated O'Grady as his accomplice in the crimes. O'Grady, in his own statement to investigators, admitted to a life of hardship, explaining that he had turned to drinking after the loss of his wife, but he denied being a participant in the murders committed by Cotton.
News of the capture of the two men, a black man named Walter Cotton and his white accomplice from Boston, Brandt O'Grady, spread quickly through the town. Rumors of a possible lynching began to circulate, prompting local authorities, Judge Goodwyn and Sheriff Lee, to request military support from Governor Tyler to ensure the safety of the prisoners. The governor dispatched the Richmond Blues infantry to Emporia to prevent any mob violence at the jail. However, on the morning of March 24, 1900, Sheriff Lee made the fateful decision to dismiss the state militia.
Almost immediately after the troops departed, a mob assembled and stormed the jail. Both Walter Cotton and Brandt O'Grady were taken from their cells and dragged to the courthouse green. There, only about fifty feet from the jail where they had been held, they were both hanged from the limb of a tree. Reports from the time indicated that county officers witnessed the event but did nothing to intervene. A subsequent grand jury was convened on April 2nd, 1900, to investigate the double lynching. Despite numerous witnesses and the identification of a former judge as the mob's leader, the grand jury failed to return any indictments, and no one was ever held accountable for the deaths of Cotton and O'Grady.
