Raymond Gunn

Raymond Gunn (January 11, 1904 – January 12, 1931) was an American man killed by a mob in Maryville, Missouri after being accused of killing a white woman.

The case received massive national publicity because it occurred outside the Southern "lynch belt," because of its brazen and planned nature, and because the county sheriff did not activate the Missouri National Guard troops that had been specifically deployed to prevent the lynching.

The case was frequently invoked in the unsuccessful attempt to pass the Wagner-Costigan Act during the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt, which would have made it a federal crime for law enforcement officials to refuse to try to prevent a lynching.

Early life Raymond Gunn was the oldest of the eight children of Michael and Maymie Gunn, a farming family in Maryville. In the 1920 census, the family is described as mulatto. In the 1930 census, Raymond Gunn is described as laborer and widower.

In September 1925, Gunn was convicted of the attempted rape of a student at what is now Northwest Missouri State University, after accosting the young woman on a rural lane outside of Maryville. The student claimed that Gunn stuck his thumbs into her mouth to keep her from screaming. Gunn never confessed to the crime and claimed to have been beaten while in custody. He was released from prison on January 28, 1928.

Following his release, Gunn married a local woman and moved with her to Omaha. However, his wife died of pneumonia, and he returned to Maryville, where he made a living as a hunter.

Murder of Velma Colter On December 16, 1930, a 20-year-old teacher, Velma Colter, daughter of a local farmer, was murdered in the one-room Garrett schoolhouse, a mile southwest of Maryville. When she failed to return home, her parents went to the school. They found her partly undressed body in a pool of blood inside the school; a bloody footprint left by her killer was on the floor.

Franklin Roosevelt campaigned in 1932, saying he was going to take steps to stop all lynchings. Ironically, he did not back the proposed Anti-Lynching Bill of 1937, though he did add a Civil Rights Section to the Justice Department.