Stephen Williams was an African American man who was lynched in Upper Marlboro, Prince George's County, Maryland, on October 20, 1894. According to accounts of the case, Williams had confessed to raping Katie Hardesty, an assault described at the time as one of the most brutal in the county's criminal history, and was subsequently held in the jail in Upper Marlboro.
The account states that Williams planned the attack on the evening of Wednesday, October 17, 1894. He is said to have confirmed that Katie Hardesty's husband, Albert Hardesty, was at the local county store, and to have known that Mrs. Hardesty was sick in bed and how to enter the home in the manner her husband typically did. After verifying at the store that Mr. Hardesty was there, Williams entered the home loudly, imitating the way Mr. Hardesty would enter. He was not recognized until Katie Hardesty rose from her bed and saw him. She was then reportedly dragged from the house and across the lawn, becoming caught in a wire fence, while fighting for her life despite her weakened state. During the assault, the family dog bit Williams' foot in an attempt to protect its owner. This distraction allowed Mrs. Hardesty's young daughter to run from the house and down the street screaming for help. Williams is said to have fled only after hearing the child crying out. Katie Hardesty then ran to her husband, in her nightgown and in a battered state, and told him what had occurred.
Following his arrest and confession, Williams was jailed in Upper Marlboro. A group of masked men broke into the jail, pulled him from beneath his mattress, put a rope around his neck, and dragged him from the jail to the "iron bridge" located between the town and the railroad depot. The rope was thrown over the bridge's top beams and Williams was hauled up and hanged. Gunfire was then fired into his hanging body, and the corpse was left on the bridge afterward.
The same bridge had reportedly been the site of the 1889 lynching of Joe Vermillion. No individuals involved in the lynching of Stephen Williams are named or identified as charged or convicted in available accounts.
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