J. Thomas Shipp and Abraham S. Smith were young African American men who were lynched on August 7, 1930, in Marion, Indiana, after being taken from jail and beaten by a mob.
James Cameron stated in interviews that Shipp and Smith had, in fact, shot and killed Claude Deeter
https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching_of_Thomas_Shipp_and_Abram_Smith