Joe Vermilion’s Fate — Upper Marlboro Lynching, Baltimore Sun Extra

Special Dispatch to the Baltimore Sun — EXTRA.

A newspaper extra reports the lynching of Joe Vermilion at Upper Marlboro, Maryland. A band of masked men overpowered the jailer at gunpoint, seized Vermilion from the prison door, dragged him to a bridge, and left his body hanging for the coroner’s investigation.

The paper records the charge against him: setting fire to barns and a dwelling. The subheadline describes it as “a son’s revenge for the loss of his father’s home.” Six men were later arrested by constables at the point of a pistol. One brother accused another of being the incendiary.

The mob did not wait for any of that to be sorted out.

This clipping was significant enough to warrant an EXTRA edition — a special print run rushed to press outside the normal publication schedule. It was news. It sold papers. And it documented, without condemnation, what a group of masked men did to a prisoner in custody.

This Receipt preserves the front page as printed.

Available in three sizes. Framed or print only.