Men Who Lynched and Burned James Jordan Can't be Charged Without Body, March 22, 1925

Jury Is in Need of Corpse

By International News Service

Waverly, Va., March 21—A coroner’s jury was convened here today to investigate the death of James Jordan, negro, who was lynched last night by an infuriated mob of 2,000 Sussex citizens, after he confessed to assaulting a young white woman.

Prosecuting Attorney Howerton had threatened to seek indictments of some prominent citizens who were ring leaders of the mob and unmasked.

But the coroner’s jury today did not get anywhere, because it developed it did not have any corpse to deal with.

The negro’s body was riddled with bullets and burned after the lynching, and even the ashes had disappeared during the night.

Later, reports came from Isle of Wight county that a charred body, supposedly Jordan’s, had been found near Windsor, but “could not be identified.”

Until there is identification of the corpse, the prosecution’s plans are at a standstill.

From the front page of The Durham Sun, Sunday morning, March 22, 1925

/newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn84020732/1925-03-22/ed-1/seq-1/#words=MARCH+22%2C+1925