Thomas J. Hampton, known simply as T. J. Hampton, emerges in history as a shadowy drifter, his early life largely undocumented, with no known records detailing his birthplace, family background, or childhood. 

The first substantial account of Hampton's life enters the record in 1887, when he confessed that he had killed a train conductor aboard a freight train in Lexington County, South Carolina. Hampton, a traveler moving frequently between locales, slipped away from the scene and was never suspected or pursued at the time.

For years thereafter, Hampton remained silent about his deeds—until he was transported farther south. Eventually, he found himself in Georgia, where he claimed to have committed two more unspecified murders, though he did not provide details of his victims or the circumstances. By 1893, law enforcement encountered Hampton again in Fort White, Florida, where he was employed at a turpentine camp.

On March 25, 1893, the quiet of a Florida turpentine camp was shattered. Hampton pulled a gun and shot at three men: Sessom Calhoun and John Bell, both of whom died, and J. W. Holliday, who was wounded but survived the attack. What propelled a laborer into homicide? The answer remains unclear—Hampton's motives were never deeply examined in public records. Still, his actions were stark and violent.

aw enforcement arrived swiftly. Despite his drift through several states, Hampton was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder. The trial that followed remains partially obscured by time, but it ended with a death sentence by hanging.

In an era of racial tension and extrajudicial justice, Hampton’s fate could have been decided by a mob rather than the law. But the governor of Florida at the time, William Sherman Jennings, intervened, ordering state troopers to protect Hampton from potential lynching, as Hampton was African American and in danger from racially motivated vigilantes. On December 2, 1901, Governor Jennings signed Hampton’s death warrant, setting his execution date for just a few days later on December 6, 1901.

On December 6, 1901, Hampton was hanged at Lake City, Florida, fulfilling his court-imposed sentence. In the hours before his execution, observers noted, he calmly smoked a cigarette. Then, moments before his death, Hampton confessed to an additional three murders committed years earlier in Georgia and South Carolina.