In July, 1935, as Broward County Sheriff deputies were transporting a prisoner, Reuben Stacey, to the Dade County jail for safekeeping, a mob forced the deputies' vehicle off the road on an isolated stretch of West Dixie Highway (State Road 7), removed Stacey from the car and hanged him from a nearby tree. As he hung by his neck, the mob riddled his body with bullets.

Stacey, an African-American, had been accused of attempting to rape a white woman in Fort Lauderdale.

Hugh Lester, the justice of the peace with jurisdiction, convened a coroner's jury that included Pompano's B. O. Giddens (a former and future city commissioner). After hearing testimony the jury concluded that that Stacey had been killed by "persons unknown."