Gallup, N.M., Nov. 26—Deep mystery tonight surrounded the shooting to death here of James W. Blackwell Jr. and his pretty young wife.
All efforts of police to find trace of an unidentified man and woman, who were seen in the vicinity of the Blackwell home shortly before the shooting occurred, about 10 o’clock last night, have been unavailing.
Blackwell was a prominent local business man and his wife was active in social affairs. He was a son of the late J.W. Blackwell, first to put “Bull Durham” tobacco on the market. The couple came here from Durham, N.C.
Blackwell and his wife attended a moving picture show Friday evening. After visiting a drug store following the move, they started for home.
The morning the bodies of Blackwell and his wife were found on the front porch of their home. Each had been shot once in the breast. An empty .38-caliber automatic pistol shell was found on the porch and a bullet in the yard. Blackwell was crouched on his needs, head on folded hands, leaning against the banister. A few feet away the body of his wife lay at full length on the porch. In Blackwell’s hand were clutched the keys to the front door of their home.
Neighbors, in the thickly-populated section where the Blackwells lived, agree that two shots were fired about 10 p.m. and one citizen reported to police that he saw a man and a woman running up a hill away from the Blackwell home. Neither was recognized and no clue to the slayers has been found.
The Blackwells were not known to have had any enemies and that robbery was not the motive for the crime is attested by the fact that Mrs. Bladkwell’s valuable rings and other jewelry were still on her body this morning.
From the front page of The Charlotte News, Nov. 27, 1921
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