Francis Johnson, Edward Evans, Don Evans Held by Coroner's Jury, June 27, 1926

Francis Johnson, Edward Evans and Don Evans Are Held by Coroner’s Jury

Greenville, N.C., June 26—A coroner’s jury investigating the death of Lellan and Wilfred Stancil, brothers, who were killed in a gun fight early this week, recommended this afternoon the holding of Francis Johnson and Edward and Don Evans.

The last of the three being held is retained as a material witness for investigation by the Grand Jury at the next term of criminal court.

Johnson’s bond was fixed at $1,500, Edward Evans at $5,000 and Don Evans at $1,000.

From the front page of the Goldsboro News, Sunday, June 27, 1926

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Coroner's Jury Believes Luby Loftin, 15, Killed Zeb Smith, 25, in Self-Defense, June 26, 1926

Negro Exonerated for Fatal Shooting

New Bern, June 25—Luby Loftin, 15-year-old Dover negro, who yesterday shot and killed Zeb Smith, 25, who is alleged to have assaulted the youth’s sister, has been exonerated by a coroner’s jury. The youth claimed that when he resented the attack on his sister that Smith ejected him from the room and reached his hand toward his hip pocket, where upon, he told the coroner, he secured a shot gun in the room and fired at Smith. The lad hit him in the abdomen and death resulted instantly.

The coroner’s jury believed the self-defense story told by the youth and rendered a verdict of justified shooting.

From page 5 of the Goldsboro News, Saturday, June 26, 1926

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David Smith Awaiting Trial for Murder of His Son-in-Law, June 26, 1926

Negro Is Held in Local Jail on Murder Charge. . . David Smith Will Face Court Soon for the Laying of Norman Rose, Colored

David Smith, middle-aged colored resident of the Saulston section of Wayne county, is now in the local jail awaiting trial at the August term of Superior Court on a charge of having caused the death of Norman Rose, his son-in-law, several days ago by firing two loads of shot into his body following an altercation which the two had and in which the slayer’s daughter, the dead man’s wife, was the “bone of contention.”

Smith, who was also wounded in the affray, being shot in the abdomen by his victim who unlimbered a .38 calibre revolver at some stage of the battle, has been discharged from the Goldsboro hospital, where he has been receiving treatment. His condition is said to be rapidly improving.

The coroner’s jury, which investigating the shooting following the death of Rose at Spicer sanitorium where he was carried for an operation, held that Smith was responsible for his demise.

From the front page of the Goldsboro News, Saturday, June 26, 1926

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Death of Preston Rodgers Remains a Mystery, June 27, 1926

Rodgers Tragedy a Mystery

Greensboro Record

The perfunctory trial and practically instructed verdict of acquittal in the case of Mrs. Rodgers, a Raleigh woman under indictment for the killing of her son Preston B. Rodgers in the aftermath of a New Year’s Eve drinking celebration will hardly surprise anyone who has followed the case through its development and delays. When the tragedy first became known, it was given out that young Rodgers had killed himself, and, while considerable evidence calculated to discredit this, the story is said to have gathered by officers and as a result of which this indictment of the mother followed. It is doubtless there that the state could not produce sufficient evidence to maintain a charge of murder against the mother. So far as we now recall, no motive for the killing of the son by the mother has ever been clearly established.

This case may now be regarded as closed, with small probability that the real facts as to the circumstances leading up to the tragedy or the identity of the person who fired the fatal shot will ever be known. It may be true, even though not absolutely provable, that the young man shot himself and that his mother or some other revelers may have ridiculed or reproved him; but so long as those in a position to know and reveal the precise circumstances keep their lips sealed, the state has no way of prying them open. One may call this termination of the case a miscarriage of justice if he will, but the records of the tragedy disclose many instances in which the state was baffled in its most persistent efforts to probe the facts completely and successfully and disclose information which would justify a conviction.

Whether or not this case and the failure of the authorities to establish the guilt of anyone played in any part in the defeat of Solicitor Evans in the recent primary can only be conjectured, but it is at least of interest to recall that he was defeated after the state’s effort to ferret out the facts and secure conviction in this case had failed.

From page 4 of the Goldsboro News, Sunday, June 27, 1926

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Robbers make Off with Ladies Coats, Silk Underwear from Mount Olive Shop, June 26, 1926

Store Robbers at Mount Olive Active

Mount Olive, June 25—the store of Mrs. Shaw McCullin, local dealer in ladies’ ready-to-wear, novelties, etc., was entered by thieves Wednesday night, who carried away some $300 to $400 worth of coats, silk underwear, hose, handkerchiefs, etc.

Entrance was made from the rear of the building by prizing out of place the bar that generally holds the doors closed. No clue as to the identity of the criminals has yet been discovered.

From the front page of the Goldsboro News, Saturday, June 26, 1926

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Deaths Result When Car Speeds on Slippery Road, June 27, 1926

Two Are Killed in Auto Crash. . . Fatal Accident Occurred Last Night on Goldsboro-New Bern Road

Motorists reaching Goldsboro at an early hour this morning brought an account of a fatal automobile wreck on the Goldsboro-New Bern road several miles west of that city last night and which cost the lives of two negroes, the probably loss of life of another, put three others in a New Bern hospital and another, the driver of the car, a big Hudson touring car, in the Craven County jail.

According to the story as brought to Goldsboro the seven colored people, the names of none of whom could be learned, were bound toward this city in the tou

The driver attempted to take a curve at a bridge at a rate estimated at from 40 to 70 miles an hour. He failed to make it. The machine struck the concrete structure and was demolished with the results noted above.

From the front page of the Goldsboro News, Sunday, June 27, 1926

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L.J. Merritt, J.R. Griffin in Goldsboro Jail, June 27, 1926

Mount Olive Man Jailed at Kinston

Kinston, June 26—L.J. Merritt of Mount Olive, N.C., and J.R. Griffin are in the city jail here, where the former must answer to a charge of driving a car while intoxicated, and the latter may be charged with drunkenness.

Their arrest came about when they crashed into the Sedan belonging to Dr. C.F. West, and which was parked in front of the Doctor’s home on Vernon avenue. The two men, in a Hudson car, were traveling sufficiently fast so that when the collided with the doctor’s car they knocked it nearly half a block, where it came to a stop only after collision with a tree. Fortunately, no one was in the car at the time.

Griffin was slightly injured as a result of the impact. Both men were shortly taken in custody, and are now incarcerated in the city jail.

From page 9 of the Goldsboro News, Sunday, June 27, 1926

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