Wade Hampton

Wade Hampton, 50, was taken from his cell at the Rock Springs city jail at gunpoint by three armed men shortly after midnight on December 12, 1917, and shot to death within the hour after an attempt to hang him from a railroad bridge failed. Hampton had been arrested the day before on charges of attempting to assault three women, held on $5,000 bond, and had appeared before a justice of the peace for a preliminary hearing — he was never tried. The three men broke into the jail office, took the absent jailer's keys, and led Hampton away in handcuffs; when the rope broke during the failed hanging, Hampton tried to flee along a creek bed before his captors caught up to him and shot him. A coroner's inquest, which heard from only two witnesses, neither of whom had been present during the abduction, ruled his death was caused by “party or parties unknown.” Wyoming's acting governor personally urged the county attorney to offer a reward, and a $500 reward was published, but no one was ever identified or charged. Hampton was buried at the county's expense.

Rock Springs, WY · Sweetwater County

• 1917: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• Victim identity, background, and the December 11–12, 1917 date and circumstances, per WyoHistory.org's account, drawn from the original coroner's inquest transcript and contemporary newspapers.
• The coroner's inquest concluded Hampton's death came at the hands of “party or parties unknown”; no one was ever charged despite a published reward.

• The identities of the three men who abducted and killed Hampton were never established.
• The underlying assault accusations against Hampton were never tested at trial, since he was killed before one could occur.

• WyoHistory.org — “A Lynching in Rock Springs”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs