Preliminary hearing of murder charges against General Jacobs and his brother, Lawrence Jacobs, negroes charged with two of the three most brutal slayings in the recent criminal history of Northeastern Carolina, was set for next Wednesday morning, October 7, in recorder’s court Wednesday morning.
General Jacobs is charged with the murder of Nehemiah D Pendleton, elderly merchant of Old Weeksville, this County, on the night of November 9, 1923. Mr. Pendleton died a few hours after receiving two terrific blows on the head, administered by a club. Lawrence Jacobs is accused of killing Mack Whichard, aged negro painter, by a blow over the head with a pickaxe. The murder of Whichard occurred a couple of years before that of Mr. Pendleton.
Both negroes have several aliases, police records reveal. General Jacobs is known as James Jacobs, and besides is said to have traveled under the name of his brother, Lawrence. The latter’s alias is recorded as Eilhu Jacobs.
Continuation of the hearings was ordered upon the failure of several State’s witnesses to appear. Two were expected form Washington, North Carolina, where General Jacobs was arrested, and three were to come from Pitt County, whence Lawrence Jacobs was brought to this city for trial. All had been duly summoned, local court officials said, and the reason for their non-appearance was not known when court adjourned.
Thus far, the character of the evidence against General Jacobs has not been disclosed; but it is rumored that his arrest followed a statement to the Washington police from a feminine acquaintance of the negro there, with whom he had quarreled. General Jacobs denies emphatically that he had any part in the Pendleton murder, claiming he was in Norfolk at the time. However, he is said to have made statements connecting his brother, Lawrence, with the killing of Whichard.
Only minor cases were disposed of in recorder’s court Wednesday morning, after continuance of the two negroes’ hearings. Leonard Armstrong was fined $10 and costs on a charge of being drunk and disorderly, and was placed under a suspended judgment of 30 days in jail, effective for a year, and operative in the event that he was convicted of a like offense in that period.
J.E. Ridgeway, in charge of sewer construction work now in progress here, was fined $5 and costs on charges of assault and using profane language in an altercation with Tom King, but one of the epithets he is said to have used constitute an assault in the eyes of the law. It is probably the most uncomplimentary in the entire category of cuss-words.
Bessie Whitehurst was required to pay the costs of an action in which she was accused of assaulting Lillie Bell Best. Both are colored.
From the front page of The Daily Advance, Elizabeth City, Wednesday evening, Sept. 30, 1925
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92074042/1925-09-30/ed-1/seq-1/
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