Richard Nobles
Bob Grady
Cater Grady
Daniel Smith

1865-07-20
Lenoir County, NC

Alleged offense: Robbery; Arson; Rape; Murder
Race: Black (Nobles) and White
Gender: Male
Age: Unrecorded
Legal intervention (in alleged offense): Yes
Legal intervention (following lynching): Yes
Mob size: 75
Mob members: A. Monroe; Franklin Hill; Everett Hill; Benjamin F. Jones; Alex Dawson; Jefferson Perry;Joseph Parrott; George W. Tillou; Jack Parker; Egbert Hill
Alleged victim: Frank Miller and his wife, unnamed in reporting
Household Status: Unknown
Occupation: Unknown

Charles Winters, John Hirst, John Middleton, and Thomas Bradley were killed as part of an infamous Duplin County lynching in 1865. Amid the transition from military to civilian governance after the Civil War, these men were killed. According to a report from Captain Edwin Latimer of the federal army, Thomas Bradley was killed in response to a request to have his wife moved to the same plantation he was working on. The cause for the killing of the other three victims of this mass lynching—Charles Winters, John Hirst, and John Middleton—is unknown. Speculation at the time suggested that their deaths, and the attempted lynching of a man named Wiley the next day, were part of an attempt to get each of the five men to leave the plantation they were working on without taking their share of the crop they had worked.

Documentation

Death certificate: None found

Census: None found

News coverage:

Examination Of the Lenoir Prisoners

Journal of Commerce

End of Ku Klux Klan Examination

Location

Town: Kinston, North Carolina
Latitude/Longitude: 35.245758, -77.582313
Rationale: Site identified as Kinston Bridge.

Additional Resources:

Researcher’s Note: