A dark shroud of mystery still hovers over the brutal slaying Sunday night or early Monday morning of Dave Hobson, local barber, and while county and city officers are leaving no stone unturned in the effort to land the guilty party behind prison bars, there have been little further developments in the case.
All day yesterday Deputy “Chink” Rhodes was busy scouring the highways and hedges for bits of evidence connected with the horrible murder, placing loose threads together, and summoning witnesses who might shed some light on the affair. Sheriff W.D. rant emerged from a sick bed, following a recent attack of appendicitis, to lend his aid in running the criminal to earth.
Officers Reticent
Both Sheriff Grant and Deputy Rhodes were reticent when questioned concerning the recent developments in the case that aroused the interest of the entire section. The sheriff said that for obvious reasons he would not be in a position to make an announcement in the press for perhaps several days, and for this reason newspaper accounts of the ?? angles to the tragedy are not official, but are based on reports emanating from unofficial circles.
June Potter, arrested Monday morning following the crime, is being held as a suspect pending a thorough investigation of certain features that are alleged to have a bearing on the slaying of Hobson. He still maintains a stoical indifference, and denies any knowledge whatsoever of the crime or that he knew the dead man or had ever seen him to his knowledge. However, officers attach no little significance to the fact that on the morning after the murder, Potter drove to LaGrange and made a statement to friends in that place that “he had been accused of killing a man and had to get straightened out.” He is also said to have gone from LaGrange to Jason, and to have made the same statement there. It was reported that he made these statements before he had been connected with the tragedy.
Potter Retains Attorney
Paul Watters and Robert Sutton, who are alleged to be the men to whom Potter made the statement of being accused of murder, were notified last night by Sheriff Grant to appear at his office today, for the purpose of giving what information they know, concerning Potter’s statement and actions the day following the murder.
Attorney Gabe Holmes has been retained by Potter, and is gathering evidence tending to prove that his client is in no way connected with the slaying of Dave Hobson. No definite charge has yet been lodged against Potter; he is merely being held as a suspect. However, John Hinson and Will Ivey, who discovered Hobson in a drunken stupor on a lonely by road in the Seven Springs section. Before the murder, were summoned for the purpose of identifying the companions of Hobson on the ill fated night both declared that Potter was not the man they saw with Hobson.
Ivey said he almost drove his car over Hobson as he lay in the road, drugged with whiskey, and that as he was dragging him out of the road a man stepped out of the woods by the side of the road and advanced toward the two. Mr. Ivey declared he asked the other if he had not “been with Dave” and the newcomer said he had.
Last Seen of Hobson
“But I am through with him, for he has cursed me with names I have never taken before,” the stranger is said to have stated.
“Yes, but since you started with him, you count to get him back home. He is in no condition to take care of himself,” Mr. Ivey said he told the man, and the latter responded, “Oh, I’ll look after him all right.”
Mr. Ivey said he then accompanied the companion of Hobson to the home of John Hinson, and that the latter returned with them to induce the stranger to take Hobson into his home and the two spent the night, but this the other declined to do.
That was the last seen of Hobson until his body was discovered about daybreak Monday morning by two negro men, who reported the discovery to Mr. Hinson. When assistance arrived Hobson was found in a pool of congealed blood, his throat slashed on both sides, and his life blood swiftly ebbing away. He died in the auto in which he was being removed to Goldsboro, shortly after the car reached the hard-surfaced road.
From the front page of The Goldsboro News, Thursday morning, March 19, 1925
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn93064755/1925-03-19/ed-1/seq-1/
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