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Solved case · 1922
The short answer
Jesse Thomas, a 23-year-old Black man in Waco, Texas, was shot to death by Sam Harris on May 26, 1922, after being wrongly identified as the man who carjacked and killed W. Harry Bolton and assaulted Maggie Hays. A mob of thousands then seized his body and burned it in Waco's public square. Thomas was later shown to be innocent; the actual perpetrator was serial killer Roy Mitchell.
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Suggest coverage for Lynching of Jesse ThomasThe case file
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.
6 dated entries · 1922–2018
W. Harry Bolton is carjacked and murdered, and Maggie Hays is assaulted, in Waco, Texas.
E.L. McClure lures Jesse Thomas into his car and takes him to the home of Maggie Hays, who identifies him.
Sam Harris shoots Jesse Thomas seven times; Thomas dies on the back steps of the Harris home.
A mob of about 6,000 removes Thomas's body from a funeral parlor, drags it through Waco, and burns it on a pyre in the public square behind City Hall.
United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary hearings document the lynching as the 30th of 61 lynchings in the U.S. in 1922.
The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which memorializes documented lynchings including that of Jesse Thomas, opens in Montgomery, Alabama.
4 named in this file
Victims first. Every legal label is set from public records and court outcomes, not from the prose.
23-year-old African-American service car driver shot to death by Sam Harris after being wrongly identified; his body was later burned by a mob. He was later established to be innocent.[3]
26-year-old woman assaulted during the same carjacking; she identified Jesse Thomas as her assailant, an identification later shown to be mistaken.[3]
25-year-old man carjacked and murdered on May 26, 1922, in the crime Jesse Thomas was wrongly blamed for.[3]
Serial killer later identified as the actual perpetrator of the murder of W. Harry Bolton and assault of Maggie Hays, for which Jesse Thomas was wrongly killed.[3]
From the record
3 cited
Coverage is not a source: every fact in this file rests on the records below.
Official / agencychroniclingamerica.loc.govAccessed Jul 10, 2026
PressThe New York TimesAccessed Jul 10, 2026
EncyclopedicWikipediaAccessed Jul 10, 2026
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Near this case
Credit: Baylor University·Editorial use·SourceSOLVEDListenWaco, Texas (surrounding area, gravel pit where remains were found) · 2000s
Baylor University basketball player Patrick Dennehy was shot and killed by teammate Carlton Dotson on June 12, 2003, near Waco, Texas, in a case that also triggered a major NCAA investigation into the Baylor basketball program.
Credit: Miscellaneous Items in High Demand, PPOC, Library of Congress·Public domain·SourceSOLVEDListenWaco, Texas (city hall site of the lynching) · 1910s
In 1916, 17-year-old Jesse Washington, an African American farmhand convicted in a one-hour trial of murdering Lucy Fryer, was seized by a mob of thousands, tortured, and burned to death in front of Waco, Texas's city hall, an event later called the "Waco Horror."
Credit: Waxahachie High School faculty member, 1982·Public domain·SourceSOLVEDListenLake Waco / Speegleville Park, Waco, Texas · 1980s
On July 13, 1982, three teenagers were abducted near Lake Waco, Texas, and murdered in what investigators concluded was a case of mistaken identity. The case led to the execution of one man and life sentences for two others, while a fourth convicted man was later released after his conviction was overturned.
Credit: W.H. Whitehead per image·Public domain·SourceUNSOLVEDListenRosewood, Levy County, Florida, United States · 1923
In early January 1923, white mobs in rural Levy County, Florida, killed at least six Black residents and destroyed the predominantly Black community of Rosewood after a white woman in nearby Sumner alleged she had been assaulted by a Black man; two white men were also killed in the resulting violence, and no one was ever prosecuted.
Image record·Public domain·SourceUNSOLVEDListen1st Street and 2nd Avenue East, Duluth, Minnesota · 1920
On June 15, 1920, a white mob of thousands broke into the Duluth, Minnesota city jail and lynched three Black circus workers—Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac McGhie—who had been arrested on an unsubstantiated rape accusation. No one was ever convicted of the murders.
Credit: PCN02WPS·CC BY-SA 4.0·SourceUNSOLVEDListenClinton, South Carolina, United States · 1924
Norris Dendy, an African-American father of five, was taken from his jail cell in Clinton, South Carolina, by a mob of white men on the night of July 4–5, 1933, and beaten and hanged after a physical altercation with a white truck driver. Five men were later indicted but a grand jury declined to charge anyone.
