Sunday, June 1, 2025

Lewis Jones, Pete Goss Convicted of Stealing 400 Pounds of Sugar, June 2, 1925

Car Robbers Receive Long Road Terms. . . Lewis Jones and Pete Goss Convicted of Larceny of 400 Pounds Sugar. . . One Is an Old Offender. . . James Is Said to Have Served Time in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary

Lewis Jaes and Pete Goss, negroes, were convicted in Superior court yesterday of the larceny of 400 pounds of sugar from box cars of the Atlantic Coast Line railway and sentenced to serve 18 months hard labor each on the county roads.

James is an old offender having been sentenced to serve two years in federal prison at Atlanta, Ga., in 1919 for participation in the famous series of box car robberies at Dunn that baffled the authorities for six months before the gang was finally rounded up. James later did an 18 months stretch on the county roads for a similar offense.

Detective A.L. Kelly of the Atlantic Coast Line, with the assistance of local officers, succeeded in landing the pair of box car looters in the toils within a few hours after they broken into the box car and purloined 400 pounds of sugar. Detective Kelly took the stand and testified that the sugar was shipped from Wilmington Sunday, February 14, and that the following Monday it was stolen from the Coast Line box cars.

Offered It to Mr. Cole

Both defendants admitted on the stand that they had carried the sugar to the store of J.W. Cole and offered it for sale. James claimed that a negro named John Johnson,m with whom he was slightly acquainted, came to the house where he and Pete Goss had rooms and turned the sugar over to him, claiming that he had been operating a commissary at the Virginia ‘box and Lumber company and had sold out all his stock except the sugar and wanted James to dispose of it for him.

Goss said he had no knowledge of the theft until he was arrested shortly after the visit of he and Goss to the store of Mr. Cole. He said James had merely approached him for aid in selling the sugar and that he had no idea it was stolen property.

J.W. Cole, prominent Goldsboro merchant, was the star witness for the state. Mr. Cole testified that both defendants had approached him with an offer to sell some sugar cheap. He said he agreed to buy the sugar at $5 a sack, and after some haggling a bargain was reached. He said he agreed to purchase three sacks and to send his delivery truck for them, but when the wagon returned there was four sacks.

Notified Police

In the meantime, he had become suspicious of the negroes and notified the police department, Officers H. Ward and Joe Howell placing the negroes under arrest after an investigation. Mr. Cole positively identified the defendants as the two negroes who offered to sell him the sugar.

James took advantage of the privilege extended him of interrogating the witness by asking him if he did not tell Mr. Cole that he was trying to dispose of the sugar for John Johnson. “You did not,” answered the witness. “You never mentioned John Johnson or anybody else while you were trying to sell me the sugar.”

So convinced were the jury that the defendants were guilty that it reached a verdict without retiring to the privacy of the jury room.

From page 3 of the Goldsboro News, Tuesday morning, June 2, 1925

newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn93064755/1925-06-02/ed-1/seq-3/#words=JUNE+2%2C+1925

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