“Joseph attempted as the last resort, to leap the same window from whence Mr. Taylor fell, when two balls pierced him from the door, and one entered his right breast from without, and he fell outward exclaiming, ‘O Lord my God.’ As his feet went out of the window my head went in, the balls whistling all around. He fell on his left side a dead man.” — Willard Richards¹

In June 1844, arrest warrants were issued, and Joseph, along with his brother Hyrum, decided to submit to arrest in Carthage, Illinois. On June 27, 1844, while held in Carthage Jail, an armed mob stormed the jail. The Carthage Greys, a military group charged with protecting the jail, offered only "token resistance" to the armed mob.² As the mob began their attack, Hyrum was killed almost instantly, and Joseph was shot while attempting to escape through a window, falling to his death. His final words were "O Lord, my God!".¹ Only Willard Richards remained unharmed, while John Taylor was gravely injured but survived.³

1. History, 1838–1856, volume F-1, Excerpt from the Times and Seasons

2. Blake, Reed, Martyrdom at Carthage, Ensign, June 1994

3. Church History Topics, Deaths of Joseph and Hyrum Smith