Lloyd Crank, sentenced to two years on the roads in a case of prostitution in the Recorders’ Court here on Wednesday, March 8, went scot free when a jury in the Superior Court here last week acquitted him of the charge. His brother Charlie Crank who drew two years in the Recorders’ Court for prostitution and the theft of an automobile was convicted only on the charge of theft in the Superior Court and sentenced to one year in the penitentiary.
On the night of Sunday, March 5, an automobile was stolen from in front of the McAdams revival tent on Parsonage Street. Three days later Charlie and Lloyd Crank, Otis Bland, Lee Overman and two 15-year-old girls by the name of Harris were found in a Negro cabin near Elizabeth City. The car was found ditched near Weeksville, nine miles from town. Charlie Crank confessed to the theft of the car. The two Cranks were sentenced to two years on the roads each and the girls held for Samarand Manor, the state reform institution for wayward girls. But, as is usually the case, the Cranks appealed to a higher court and with able counsel laughed defiance in the face of the State. E.F. Aydlett and Martin Simpson represented the Harris girls; W.L. Cohoon and P.W. McMullan represented the Cranks.
Solicitor Ehringhaus boiled when the jury returned a verdict of not guilty in the case of Lloyd Crank. Among other things, Mr. Ehringhaus said: “I know that the most lecherous, venal influences in this community cluster about that man and others.
“I am willing to make affidavit,” declared Solicitor Ehringhaus in Superior Court Saturday morning “that Lloyd Crank came into my office during the Winder trial, and talked with me about his efforts to get testimony to impugn the character and good name of the prosecuting witnesses in that trial; and that he admitted that he knew nothing against the character of that witness. I have evidence that he has been receiving money from Winder.”
The difficulty in convicting the Cranks is believed to lie in the fact that they are the servitors in immorality of influential and wealthy men in the community; and that when they get in trouble they threaten to tell what they know about their respectable patrons, compelling them to employ the best lawyers for them and use their influence with venal jurors.
The jurors in the Crank case were:
E.R. Norris, O.M. Wynn, J.L. Pendleton, U.D. Dozier, H.F. Thornton, W.C. Godfrey, M.M. Hurdle, A.L. Phelps, C.A. Bright, L.I. Berry, Ernest White and A.O. Smith.
Last week’s term of the Superior Court in this city was called “The Crank Special.” The Cranks crowd the docket of every term of the Superior Court in this county. It would be interesting to know just who pays their bills.
From the front page of The Independent, Elizabeth City, N.C., Friday, March 31, 1922
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