Lynching of Robert Marshall

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Robert “Bob” Marshall was an African American coal miner from Arkansas, born around 1885. On June 18, 1925, he was lynched by a Ku Klux Klan mob in Castle Gate, Utah, for allegedly killing a white guard.

The alleged crime involved James Milton Burns, a watchman for the Utah Fuel Company, who was injured on June 15, 1925, in Castle Gate. Burns died a few days later. Marshall was identified by a few children who saw someone fleeing the scene, and a large manhunt began.

Marshall hid that night in a cabin shared with another miner, George Gray. Early on June 18, Deputy Sheriff Henry East had Marshall arrested by a nine‑man posse as they escorted him toward Price to be jailed.

Before they could reach the courthouse, a lynch mob blocked their path. Marshall was pulled from the car and taken to a cottonwood tree east of Price, where he was hanged. About ten minutes later, deputies arrived, found him still breathing, and he was hanged again. His neck broke and he died quickly.

Following the killing, investigators charged several men for pulling the rope and later charged more as accomplices. All those charged were members of the Ku Klux Klan. The group known as the “Carbon County Eleven” were jailed and publicly celebrated by some local residents.

Under pressure from state officials, authorities moved to a grand jury instead of a trial. The Carbon County Eleven were released on bail, and the grand jury ultimately found insufficient evidence to convict them. In August 1925 they were released, and a local newspaper editorial suggested the matter should be considered closed.

Today Marshall’s lynching is often called the Last Lynching of the American West. In 1998 a gravestone was placed at his grave, with the inscription honoring him as a victim of intolerance. In 2005, the U.S. Senate adopted Resolution 39, apologizing for the nation’s failure to enact anti-lynching legislation and expressing sympathy to the victims and their descendants. The case remains a painful and divisive chapter in Carbon County, and some historians note that if Burns did shoot Marshall, the lynching represents a grave miscarriage of justice.