Spokane Editor Survives Shooting Over Indecent Literature Charges
A local editor was fired upon in the street after a dispute over a rival publication's legal troubles.
John F. Carrere, editor of the Spokane Spokesman, was shot at last night by A. C. Edwards, a note-shaver of that city. Edwards, editor of a weekly called The Regulator, who is under an indictment for publishing indecent literature, met Carrere on the street and accused him of saying that he would take back his money and the indecent paper. Carrere denied it. Edwards called him a liar. Carrere returned it. Edwards pulled a pistol and fired, but missed. Joseph Francis Johnson, editor of the Review, was with Carrere at the time, grappled with Edwards, wrenched the pistol from him, and beat him into insensibility. There was great excitement, as it took place on Riverside Avenue, a principal street. Edwards is formerly an editor at Little Rock, Ark., and is the regulator of a bad name.
“Edwards pulled a pistol and fired, but missed.”
The volatile relationship between local editors and the subjects of their reporting was a hallmark of 19th-century frontier journalism. Today, while physical duels between editors are rare, the tension between local media accountability and the personal reputations of civic figures remains a constant in Washington's political discourse.
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