Joe Swindell Shot by Grandfather of His Victim, Aug. 21, 1924

Joe Swindell Shot in Jail. . . Prisoner to Hospital Instead of to Jail. . . J.D. Farrior of Wilson, Grandfather of Swindell’s alleged victim, fired shot as prisoner was about to be taken to the courthouse

Joe Swindell, divorced young married man, accused of the crime of deflowering childhood, will not be tried at this term of Superior Court.

He was shot in his cell in the Pasquotank County jail Thursday morning shortly before 10 o’clock, just as Deputy Sheriff Pritchard was preparing to bring the prisoner into court for trial.

The man by whom he was shot is J.D. Farrior of Wilson, grandfather of Swindell’s alleged victim. Mr. Farrior is believed unobserved to have followed jailer Albertson into the jailyard. At any rate the Wilson man walked into the jail while Mr. Albertson had the door open and was cleaning up, aimed his gun at close range at Swindell through the bars of his iron cage cell and fired.

Whether at a later term of the Superior Court Swindell will answer to a Pasquotank jury for the offense charged against him or whether he will be called to a Higher tribunal does not yet appear. Immediately following the shooting, he was rushed to the Elizabeth City hospital where the exact nature of his injuries must await an X-Ray examination. The bullet took effect in the prisoner’s right side, between the backbone and a line from hip to armpit just above the abdomen. The course of the bullet after entering the body has not yet been determined.

His purpose accomplished, Mr. Farrior walked unmolested from the jail yard to the public square, a half block away on which the court house stands, and proceeded straight to the sheriff’s office, where he gave himself up. He was still in the sheriff’s office when this newspaper went to press.

News of the shooting spread over the city Thursday morning like wildfire and a crowd of people now cover the courthouse green talking excitedly, while on the streets passers-by gather in knots to talk and pass on. Meantime in the courtroom, with Judge Lyon on the bench, this week’s term of Superior Court pursues again the orderly routine of the day’s session, interrupted but momentarily by the shooting of the next defendant to be tried, while in one corner the sheriff’s office an old man sits unguarded and calmly reading a newspaper. He is J.D. Farrior of Wilson.

From the front page of the Concord Daily Advance, Thursday, Aug. 21, 1924

newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92074042/1924-08-21/ed-1/seq-1/#words=AUGUST+21%2C+1924