Email: remember@strangefruit.org

Laura Nelson and Son
Okemah, Oklahoma
May 25, 1911

A photo postcard depicts Laura Nelson fully clothed in a calico print dress. This account is taken from Oklahoma newspapers - Laura's teenage son shot and killed Dep. George Loney while a posse searched their cabin for stolen meat. Laura claimed to have shot the deputy to protect her son, but was determined innocent. The father pled guilty of stealing cattle and was taken to jail earlier. Several weeks later, a mob of forty entered a "usually locked" sheriff's office where the Nelson youth was asleep in a cell. The guard was coerced at gun point to release the boy to them. The fourteen-year-old was tied and gagged. Then the mob went to the female holding cell and took Laura Nelson, a smallish woman of 35 years. The mother and son were taken to the new bridge and with a hangman's noose, were hung 20 feet from each other. No marks of brutally were on the bodies but the boy's clothes were stripped to expose him. The bridge was significantly near a black township and hundreds from around the area came to view them. It was believed that they had received due process of law.