Lynching of Jesse Thomas

On the morning of May 26, 1922, in Waco, McLennan County, Texas, a man carjacked a vehicle occupied by 25-year-old W. Harry Bolton and 26-year-old Mrs. Maggie Hays, murdering Bolton and assaulting Hays. Hays later told investigators her assailant said the attack was retaliation for nine recent lynchings of African-Americans in Texas over the preceding 20 days, and that he fled by jumping onto a passing cargo train. Waco Chief of Police Jenkins deputized citizens to assist in the investigation given the severity of the crime.

Jesse Thomas, a 23-year-old African-American service car driver who was married and lived in South Waco, was picked up by E.L. McClure, a telegraph operator who had been deputized and believed Thomas matched the description of the attacker. McClure lured Thomas into his car under the pretext of offering grass-cutting work, then drove him to the home of Maggie Hays. When Hays identified Thomas, her father, Sam Harris, shot Thomas seven times as Thomas attempted to flee the house. Thomas died on the back steps of the home. Authorities did not press charges against Harris, who offered to surrender.

News of the shooting spread rapidly, and a mob estimated at 6,000 people forced its way into the funeral parlor where Thomas's body had been taken. The corpse was removed, tied to a truck, and dragged through Waco to a pyre of cordwood prepared in the public square behind City Hall, where it was burned. Afterward, his remains were further desecrated by the mob.

Separately, Constable Leslie Stegall had already arrested a Black man named Sank Johnson who matched the description given by Hays; Johnson's shoes reportedly matched footprints at the crime scene. Johnson and four other men held in custody who matched the description were guarded by Texas Rangers to protect them from the lynch mob. Thomas's family maintained his innocence and presented evidence that he had been at home with them at the time of the carjacking and assault. It was later established that Thomas was innocent, and that the actual perpetrator of the carjacking, murder of Bolton, and assault of Hays was serial killer Roy Mitchell.

The killing of Jesse Thomas was reported as the tenth lynching in Texas within a 20-day span, and, according to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, the 30th of 61 documented lynchings in the United States in 1922. The case is memorialized among the 805 hanging steel rectangles at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama, which represents U.S. counties, including McLennan County, Texas, where documented lynchings occurred.