Asheville, Sept. 3—Arthur and Oscar Pettit, brothers, and Louis Whitmore,all young white men, are being held in the Transylvania county jail as a result of the finding of the decapitated body of Jesse Masters in a remote spot in the mountains late yesterday.
The coroner’s inquest is slated to be held tomorrow morning at 10 o’clock and before that time Sheriff J. B. Sitton promises he will have others behind the bars in connection with the affair.
Masters disappeared on August 15 and no trace of him was found until Thursday when persons in the woods came upon the body in a badly decomposed condition, with the head severed and lying several feet away. Other wounds were in evidence upon the body, Sheriff Sitton stated.
Young men held in connection with the affair are said to have been seen with Masters shortly before he disappeared. The group is said to have been seen drinking rather heavily about that time. Any other connection with the affair that warrants holding the young men the sheriff is keeping to himself.
Interest in Transylvania county is running high as a result of the affair and numerous citizens are reported to be aiding the sheriff and his deputies in the attempt to get at the bottom of the slaying.
The coroner’s jury tomorrow is expected to make an attempt to decide just what caused the death of Masters. There was some evidence that he had been stabbed, although the condition of the body made it impossible to establish this fact for certain. It is also said that his throat was cut at a time prior to the severing of the head from the body.
From the front page of the Concord Daily Tribune, Sept. 4, 1926
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1926-09-04/ed-1/seq-1/
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