Joseph G. Crane

{{Short description|Mayor of Jackson, Mississippi in 1869}}

Joseph G. Crane (died June 8, 1869{{Cite book |last=Yerger |first=Edward M. |url=https://search.libraries.emory.edu/catalog/9936511348902486 |title=Trial of E.M. Yerger before a military commission for the killing of bv't. Col. Joseph G. Crane, at Jackson, Miss., June 8th, 1869 : including testimony of all the witnesses arguments |date=June 1, 1869 |publisher=Clarion Book and Job Printing Establishment}}) was a Union Army breveted colonel who was the appointed mayor of Jackson, Mississippi. He was assassinated.

Crane was stabbed to death{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1869/06/15/archives/the-tragedy-in-jackson-the-murder-of-colonel-joseph-g-crane-mayor.html|title=THE TRAGEDY IN JACKSON.; The Murder of Colonel Joseph G. Crane, Mayor of the City by Colonel Yerger.|newspaper=The New York Times |date=June 15, 1869}} on the capitol steps by Edward M. Yerger, a former Confederate Army officer who owned a newspaper,{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ioiAfzZsxbcC&dq=%22joseph+g.+crane%22&pg=PA113|title=Of Long Memory: Mississippi And The Murder Of Medgar Evers|first=Adam|last=Nossiter|date=June 16, 2009|publisher=Hachette Books|isbn=9780786748488 |via=Google Books}} the Evening Journal in Baltimore.{{Cite web |last=Humanities |first=National Endowment for the |date=April 23, 1875 |title=Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, April 23, 1875, Image 2 |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85033673/1875-04-23/ed-1/seq-2/ |via=chroniclingamerica.loc.gov}} Under Crane’s authority a piano had been seized from Yerger’s family to satisfy a tax assessment.{{Cite web |last=Society. (Founded 1890) |first=Mississippi Historical |date=June 1, 1918 |title=Publications. Centenary Series |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ifk7AAAAIAAJ&dq=%22joseph+g.+crane%22+the+tragedy&pg=PA361 |via=Google Books}} After military officials arrested his assailant, a writ of Habeas corpus was filed and eventually appealed in the Ex parte Yerger case to the United States Supreme Court. Yerger was represented by his uncle, William Yerger, who had served on the Mississippi Supreme Court in the 1850s. After the justices' decision, a deal was made and he was released to civil authorities, bonded out, and moved to Baltimore, Maryland. He was never tried.{{Cite web|url=https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/browse?type=lcsubc&key=Crane,+Joseph+G.,+1825-1869&c=x|title=Browse subject: Crane, Joseph G., 1825-1869 | The Online Books Page|website=onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu}}