During the 1980 New Mexico State Penitentiary riot , a number of inmates were burnt to death by fellow inmates , who used blow torches . Modern burnings continued as a method of lynching in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries , particularly in the South . One of the most notorious extrajudicial burnings in modern history occurred in Waco , Texas on 15 May 1916 . Jesse Washington , an African-American farmhand , after having been convicted of the rape and subsequent murder of a white woman , was taken by a mob to a bonfire , castrated , doused in coal oil , and hanged by the neck from a chain over the bonfire , slowly burning to death . A postcard from the event still exists , showing a crowd standing next to Washington 's charred corpse with the words on the back " This is the barbecue we had last night . My picture is to the left with a cross over it . Your son , Joe " . This attracted international condemnation and is remembered as the " Waco Horror "
New Mexico State Penitentiary riot
New Mexico State Penitentiary riot
Death by burning