Roy Belton
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Roy Belton (1900 or 1901 – August 28, 1920)[1] was a 19-year-old white man arrested in Tulsa, Oklahoma with a female accomplice for the August 21, 1920, robbery and murder of a white man, local taxi driver Homer Nida. He was taken from the county jail by a group of armed men, after a confrontation with the sheriff, and taken to an isolated area where he was lynched.
Nida, hospitalized with a gunshot wound to the stomach, had identified Belton as the person who robbed and shot him. Belton confessed after being arrested, but told police the shooting was an accident. Rumors began to spread of mob justice if Nida died. While Nida was hospitalized, local newspaper the Tulsa Tribune published Belton's photo and said that he "planned to escape on a plea of insanity".[2] Nida died a week after being shot, and his wife was quoted as saying "I hope that justice will be done for they have taken an innocent life and ruined my happiness. They deserve to be mobbed but the other way is better".[3][page needed]
That night a crowd gathered at the Tulsa County Court House, where the county jail was located on the top floor. Several armed men entered the building, where they confronted Sheriff James Wooley and ordered him to release Belton. They took Belton outside and drove him in his victim's taxi to a lonely road near Jenks, about nine miles (fourteen kilometers) outside Tulsa, and lynched him.[2] At the scene, local police kept onlookers away from Belton and his captors and directed traffic.[3][4]
