Source: Sumner Co. Archives
Lawsuit #5396, Loose Records of Sumner Co, TN
Contributed by Diane Payne at DianePay@aol.com
Note: This is an abstract of the record.
... Chancery Court at Gallatin, Tennessee
Joseph Short a citizen and resident of Sumner County, Tennessee, Complainant
vs
John Freedle, and wife Carrie Freedle, William Freedle . . . and A. E. Gardner, defendants, all of
whom are citizens and residents of Sumner County, Tennessee, except A. E. Gardner who is a
resident of Robertson County, Tennessee.
Complainant respectfully shows to the court:
That on June 10, 1907 defendant John Freedle, aided and abeted by his brother William Freedle, deft., in the 16th Civil District of Sumner County along the public road from Portland to Red River, deliberately, premeditatedly and maliciously, and without any cause, fault, provocation or act of Complainant, cruelly and barbarously shot and maimed, and seriously and fatally wounded Complainant, the said Def. John Freedle having loaded the said gun with slugs made from chopped nails, old rusty tacks and shot sometime before said shooting, and with said double barrel shot gun thus prepared and loaded by said Defendant and with a concealed and load pistol said Defendant went to said point along said road and when Complainant came along said road to get some tobacco plants from a bed raised and prepared and owned by complaint and others on said defendants land adjoining . . . about fifteen steps from Complainant aimed and fired the said shot gun . . . striking and penetrating the body of complainant in about seventy places . . .
...the said defendants John Freedle and William Freedle are justly indebted to complainant in the sum of $5000 . . . defendant has fraudulently diposed of all his real estate and is now about to fraudulently dispose of all his personal property . . . Complainant charges that at the time of the execution of said mortgage there was no suit by the State pending against said defendant, John Freedle, and only his guilty knowledge and consciousness of his fiendish and murderous assault upon complainant caused him through friendly oficals to institute proceedings in the name of the State against himself in order to create a favorable sentiment in his behalf and to minimize the atrocity of his conduct, this being attempted by defendant having himself put under $1000 bail bond, when he knew at the time of the commission of said act that he was guilty of five separate and distinct crimes, two of which are felonies and will probably be capital offeenese...