After shooting and killing a member of the posse searching their farm on May 2, 1911, L.D. and Laura Nelson were held in the Okemah County, Oklahoma jail. On May 25, 2011, a mob kidnapped them from their cells, raped Laura Nelson, then hung her and her son from a railroad bridge over the North Canadian River. It is unknown what happened to Laura Nelson's two-year-old daughter.
Woody Guthrie's father was a member of that mob.
Spectators, 35 men and six women, are lining up for a photograph, or to look at the bodies, along with 17 children, toddlers to mid-teens. Okemah, Oklahoma, May 1911. Photo by George Henry Farnum