QW, an Illinois neswpaper, reports that JS was killed in a rescue attempt.
William Roosevelt, "Extra" in Quincy Whig, Quincy, Illinois, July 3, 1844 in LeGrand L. Baker, Murder of the Mormon Prophet: The Political Prelude to the Death of Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City: Eborn Books, 2011), 592
About 6 o’clock, last evening, an attempt was made by the Mormons on the outside to rescue the Mormon prisoners from the custody of the guard. A youth about 19 years of age, (a Mormon,) began the fray, by shooting the sentinel at the door, wounding him severely in the shoulder. Simultaneously with this attempt, the Mormons on the inside of the jail, including the Smiths, presented pistols through the windows and doors of the jail, and fired upon the guard without, wounding, it is supposed, mortally four of the “old citizens” of Hancock! It is unnecessary to say that this bloodthirsty attempt, on the part of the Mormons, was the signal for certain and sure vengeance. The lives of the two Smiths, and Richards, were quickly taken, and we believe no others! Carthage was filled with Mormons—previous to the affray, the Mormons appeared to be collecting around the jail, it is now supposed, for the purpose of attempting the rescue of their leader.