User:Enwebb/Lynching of Bill Terry

William Terry, also known as "Old Bill" Terry, was

He is usually regarded as the first person to have been lynched in Ohio, though his actual lynching took place on Manchester Island in the Ohio River, which belongs to the state of Kentucky.

Terry, a free Black man, was accused of the rape of a white woman, Mrs. Morrison of Manchester, Ohio. Reports were that he had broken into her house through a window and surprised her in bed. According to reports he grabbed her by the throat, catching a finger in her mouth and fracturing her jaw, choking her until she was unconscious, assaulting her, and going home. According to reports he went home, where his wife asked him why he was out of breath and he said he'd run all the way from the river where he'd been working.

Mrs. Morrison told neighbors, who had heard her screaming, that she had scratched her attacker's face. They suspected Terry because he was believed to have attempted or committed two earlier rapes while living in Ironton. When they went to his home to confront him, they found his face was bleeding. They took him to Manchester Island and hanged him, but he revived and confessed. The mob took him to West Union, where he was jailed. Mrs. Morrison's husband arrived home and revived the lynching, breaking into the jail and taking Terry back to Manchester Island, where they hanged him.