On this day in Yorkshire

April 1, 1909

Details have been received of the murder of a Sheffield saw maker, named Patrick Carroll, in Indianapolis. A negro named Skelton has been under arrest since March 17, when the murder was committed, and is awaiting his trial for murder in the first degree.

Carroll was going home when the negro crossed the road, and without exchanging any conversation with Carroll, emptied his revolver into his back, laughing as he did so. Carroll had no chance of recovering, and died in a short time without being able to make any statement. The negro denies having any grievance against Carroll, whom he had never seen before. He had an impulse to shoot, and followed it, and that is all he knows about it.

Before going out to the United States, about 12 years ago, Carroll served his apprenticeship at Messrs Slack, Sellars, and Co, at Neepsend, Sheffield. He was a member of a Roman Catholic family, but his mother and father are dead; his only near relative being a brother, who received the news from an American newspaper cutting handed him by a shopmate.

The murdered man leaves a widow, he having married an American woman after leaving Sheffield. He was employed at the firm Atkin and Co, in Indianapolis.

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