Sunday, December 31, 2023

Police Searching for Harry Mitchell After Jesse Wells, 38, Dies of Gunshot Wound, Dec. 31, 1923

Negro Succumbs to Wound in Leg. . . Jesse Wells, 38, Shot by Harry Mitchell on Christmas Eve Morning

Jesse Wells, 38-year-old negro of 609 Chestnut alley, died in Lincoln hospital Sunday from the effects of a gunshot wound inflicted on Christmas eve morning by Harry Mitchell, a negro for whom local police are now searching.

Wells was taken to the hospital at 5:45 o’clock in the morning with a severe wound in his left leg. He made no statement of the shooting and relatives of the wounded man kept the affair silent until three days after, thus making the capture of Mitchell more difficult. The warrant for the negro was not sworn out until Sunday afternoon. The dead man’s relatives declare that they thought his wound was not so serious and for some reason they declined to explain their endeavor to keep the shooting from police investigation.

In the meantime, however, tetanus, or lockjaw, developed and Wells succumbed after much suffering. The wound was infected by powder burns, hospital authorities declare.

Mitchell was described as being a yellow negro of about 45 years of age. He left the city immediately after the shooting, police believe.

Wells will be buried Monday afternoon.

From page 2 of the Durham Morning Herald, Dec. 31, 1923

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