By the Associated Press
High Point, N.C., March 15—L.S. Jenkins, chief of police of Thomasville, charged with the murder of a white woman believed to be Mrs. Elizabeth Jones of Appalachia, Va., whose body was found in Jenkins’ home yesterday, was arrested when he returned to Thomasville early today, according to the advices received here.
Jenkins was taken to Lexington and placed in the Davidson county jail.
His whereabouts, a mystery since mid-Wednesday, Jenkins arrived in Thomasville about 3 o’clock this morning, going to a café where he made inquiries about a little girl, daughter of the woman found in his room. He was told that the little girl was getting along all right and he then gave himself up to the authorities.
Jenkins was in a very nervous condition when interviewed in his cell and had little to say. He talked to Sheriff Talbert, but gave very little information relative to the crime. He said the woman who was first known in Thomasville as his wife and later identified as Mrs. Elizabeth Jones, wife of Thomas S. Jones of Appalachin, Va., killed herself.
When asked for an explanation as to how the woman could have shot herself in the left shoulder so that the bullet would range towards the heart, he made no reply.
“Why did you leave Thomasville when you knew she had committed suicide?” he was asked.
“That’s it,” was his only reply.
“Why didn’t you secure help for the woman right away?” was another question to which the prisoner replied that he was not fully dressed at the time of the shooting and he wished to put on his clothing before going for assistance.
“Why should you have to go for assistance when there was a telephone in your room?” he was asked by the sheriff.
“That’s it,” he answered again. “I must have been crazy.”
Jenkins admitted that the woman was not his wife, stating his wife was in Greenville, S.C.
In explanation of his absence since the shooting, Jenkins said he took a care belonging to the city of Thomasville, drove to High Pont, where he caught a train going to Greenville to see his relatives. He returned about 3 o’clock this morning and gave himself up.
the story of the killing is one full of gruesome details. The time of the affair, has been fixed at about midnight Wednesday, but the body of the woman was not found until 9:30 o’clock Friday morning. During this period the body was in a room where a five-year-old daughter of Mrs. Jones was the only companion. There were several callers at the room, but the little girl refused them admittance. To each she told “Daddy is not at home. You can’t see Mamma.”
At 9:30 o’clock Friday morning, Mrs. J.T. Carter and others who attempted to gain entrance into the room, having become suspicious, found the body of the woman and notified the police immediately. The body was lying on the bed in a pool of blood, with a wound showing that the bullet had passed through the shoulder, coming out at the front, near the heart. The bullet had lodged in the wall of the room.
Bloodstains on the door indicated that the woman had moved about the room after being shot. There were also stains on a water pitcher in the room and it has been pointed out that possibly Jenkins had assisted the wounded woman back to the bed, later washing his hands.
In the room were found indications that there had been a party in progress. A small quantity of whiskey was left in a fruit jar on a table, celery, cherries and other articles of food, being the remains of a feast on the table. The gun, a .38 calibre with one empty cartridge was also found in the room. It was a weapon of cheap manufacture and identified as one owned by Jenkins by those who said they had seen it in his possession.
From the front page of the Durham Morning Herald, Sunday, March 16, 1924
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