Special Agent Roy L. Hoyle

Roy L. Hoyle

Special Agent Roy Hoyle was shot and killed in Mobile, Alabama, while attempting to keep a mob of citizens from storming the jail in an attempt to lynch a 17-year-old prisoner who had been charged with sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl.

A mob of approximately 500 men gathered near the intersection of Royal Street and Dauphin Street without knowing that the prisoner had been secretly moved out of the city and hidden in a Mobile and Ohio Railroad terminal.

The jailer had allowed several men in the mob that he personally knew to search the jail to prove that the prisoner was not there; however, the full mob attempted to force its way in even after the men assured them the prisoner was not there. One of the guards inside fired a shot in an attempt to warn the mob, but several of the citizens opened fire. Special Agent Hoyle and a city alderman were both shot. Special Agent Hoyle was struck in the abdomen and died a short time later.

Special Agent Hoyle was survived by his daughter and brothers.