Victim ID: VA1892031801
Victim Name: Lee Heflin
Race: White
Sex: Male
Age: 29
Job: Farmer
Method of Death: Hanged and riddled with bullets
Accusation: Murder of a white widow woman and her three children and burning their bodies, and then robbed the house.
Date: 1892-03-18
City: Gainesville
Mob Composition: About 60 masked men
Summary: Lee Heflin, a white farm laborer working in Fauquier County, was lynched on March 18th, 1892 near Gainesville, together with another white man, Joseph Dye. They were awaiting to be executed for the murder of a white widow and her three children.
On the night of November 9th, 1891, Lee Heflin and Joseph Dye killed Mrs. Kines and her two daughters Annie and Lizzie Kines at her house near Warrenton Junction in Fauquier County, during a robbery. According to the indictment papers included in the Commonwealth Cause, Lee Heflin assaulted Annie Kines and E. V. Kines with a club or stick of wood with which he killed both women. Heflin and Dye also killed Mrs. James Kines and her other children, and then burned down the Kines’ house. Upon their arrest, they were threatened to be lynched and brought to Alexandria jail for safekeeping (Shenandoah Herald). The Staunton Spectator reported that “On December 28th [1891] the trial took place and both men were found guilty and sentenced to be hanged […on] March 18th [1892]. Dye’s counsel secured a writ of error from the court of appeals, and subsequently [Virginia] Governor McKinney granted a respite for Heflin until the final result of Dye’s case on appeal for a new trial.” The local population of Warrenton was dissatisfied with the governor’s action and “threats were made that the verdict of the jury and the sentence of the court should be executed notwithstanding the action of the court of appeals and the Governor” (Staunton Spectator). Late in the night, authorities attempted to transport Heflin and Dye to a safer location in Gainesville, in order to await a train for Alexandria, where the two prisoners would be put in jail. At about 3 in the morning, a mob of about 60 masked men overtook the wagon with the prisoners and four guards on the Manassas Branch railroad, near Gainesville. The mob took Heflin and Dye from the guards without resistance, and ordered them to confess their crimes. According to the Staunton Spectator, “Dye, weeping and begging for his life, confessed the crime, but said he was forced to commit it. He was then strung up and his body riddled with bullets. Heflin was then asked to confess, but he refused to say anything and soon received the same fate of his companion in crime.” A Coroner’s inquest found that the two men died “by hanging and pistol or gunshot wounds at the hands of persons unknown to the jury.”
For a detailed account of the double lynching of Heflin and Dye, you can read this article by John Toler.
Archival Sources: Commonwealth Cause of Lee Heflin, Commonwealth Cause of Lee Heflin (2), Commonwealth Cause of Lee Heflin and Charles Dye
News Coverage: Richmond Dispatch, Roanoke Times, Shenandoah Herald, Staunton Spectator
Article Link (from Richmond Dispatch published on 1891-11-28)
Article Link (from Roanoke Times published on 1892-03-19)
Article Link (from Shenandoah Herald published on 1891-12-04)
Article Link (from Staunton Spectator published on 1892-03-23)
Article Link (from Staunton Spectator published on 1892-03-23)