Lynching of Joseph Vermillion

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Joseph Vermilion was a 27-year-old white man^[1] lynched December 3, 1889 for the crime of arson in Upper Marlboro, Maryland.^[2]

Vermillion had been jailed in Upper Marlboro for a series of arsons involving barns filled with tobacco and houses in Prince George's County.^[3] At 2:30am, a band of masked men broke into the jail, overpowered the jailkeeper, and left with Vermillion.^[3]

Vermillion was dragged to the "iron bridge just between the town and the railroad depot"^[4] and hanged.^[3] His body was left hanging from the bridge until the coroner's investigation.^[3]

That same bridge was used 5 years later in another lynching, of Stephen Williams, by a similar band of masked men.^[4]

External links

• Resources relating to Joe Vermillion at the Maryland State Archives

References