Charlotte Observer
Fearing development of violent mob sentiment against Joe Shack, who tried to commit suicide after failure at criminal assault upon Mrs. Roscoe C. Little, according to Salisbury advices, Sheriff Jim Krider spirited the nearly dead negro man into the Mecklenburg county jail about 12 o’clock Saturday night for safe keeping.
With a bullet hole entirely through his head, the negro hung between life and death in a prison cell here yesterday and last night, the doctors agreeing he had no chance for recovery.
Sheriff Krider told Deputy Sheriff J. B. Pharr, in charge of the jail, that feeling was running strong among the men in the Little neighborhood—on the Bingle’s ferry road near Salisbury—but that so far as he knew there had been no design to storm the Rowan jail.
He decided to take no chances, however, and loaded his unconscious prisoner on an ambulance, bringing him to Charlotte.
The assault is said to have taken place at the Little home Saturday morning, following the negro’s having been discharged from his work on the farm the day before.
Mrs. Little, mother of several small children, was said to have been handled by the man until her screams attracted neighboring women, who came running to her rescue.
The negro then released his hold on Mrs. Little and ran into the house, it is said, where he secured Mr. Little’s revolver and returning to the door and fired at Mrs. Little, failing to touch her. He then returned into the house and shot himself, dispatches state. The bullet hole leads from the right to left and evidently pierced the brain, doctors say.
He was lying unconscious in his own blood when Sheriff Krider found him in the Little home Saturday morning. He continues in that state and is not expected to regain his senses.
Shack was employed by Mr. Little as a farm hand until Friday,, when he was released for being lazy and not attending to his duties.
The Little home was reported as being entered by an intruder Friday night. The burglar was frightened away before any of the family saw him, but it was suspected, in view of later developments, that Shack was the intruder.
Doctor McLaughlin said last night, after an examination, that Shack was holding his own, though he did not see how the man could continue living. It looks very much as if the bullet went through Shack’s brain, he said, in which case it is surprising that he did not die instantly.
From page 4 of The Beaufort News, Carteret County Monday, June 15, 1925
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1925-06-15/ed-1/seq-4/
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