| T. J. Hampton | |
| Birth Name: | Thomas J. Hampton |
| Birth Place: | United States |
| Death Place: | Lake City, Florida, U.S. |
| Cause: | Execution by hanging |
| Conviction: | First degree murder (2 counts) |
| Sentence: | Death |
| Victims: | 5 |
| Beginyear: | 1887 |
| Endyear: | 1893 |
| Country: | United States |
| States: | Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina |
| Apprehended: | 1893 |
T. J. Hampton (born Thomas J. Hampton; died December 6, 1901) was a 19th-century American serial killer who was hanged in 1901 for the murders of two men in Fort White, Florida. On the day of his execution, Hampton confessed to a further three murders committed in Georgia and South Carolina years prior.[1]
Little to nothing is known about Hampton's childhood. According to his confession, he committed his first murder in 1887, that of a train conductor while aboard a freight train in Lexington County, South Carolina.[1] Being a drifter, Hampton had left the state not long after, successfully evading capture and not becoming a suspect.
During the years after, Hampton moved to Georgia, where he committed two more murders, but would not elaborate on the victims.[2] By 1893, Hampton was working at a turpentine camp in Fort White, Florida. On March 25 of that year, Hampton shot at three Caucasian men; Sessom Calhoun and John Bell were killed while J. W. Holliday, the third man, was wounded but survived.[3] Shortly after, Hampton was arrested and charged with the two murders. Subsequently, he was tried and convicted on two counts of first degree murder, and was sentenced to hang.[3]
Due to an outcry of threats, governor William Sherman Jennings assigned state troopers to protect Hampton, who was African American, from a possible lynching.[4] On December 2, 1901, governor Jennings signed a death warrant which scheduled Hampton to be execution on December 6. On that day, Hampton was hanged at Lake City.[5] Shortly before his execution, Hampton, who was smoking a cigarette, made a statement in which he confessed to the previous three murders.[6]