Bisbee daily review., 1905-04-20
SHIPS OFFICERS STORY
 OF MURDER
FOREIGN DISPOSITIONS TAKEN
 IN HOBBS EsTRADTrION CASE.
Story of the Captain of the Vessel on the Eventful Night in September 1902.

Lee Hobbs. deputy sheriff at Cliff
 ton. who was arrested for the alleged
 murder of mate on a British vessel,
 had his hearing in Phoenix on Mon.-
 day. and was liberated. his detention
 being a clear case of mistaken iden- tity.
 The story of the tragedy. as told by the ships officers. is very mach
 the same as that related by Volz. the
 witnes. in his testimony last Friday. except that it appears to have been the opinion of the captain and chiei mate that the mutineers never reached shore alive.
 Captain Percy said he had very little to do with the three men. It was quickly discovered that they were not able bodied seamen. and he had disrated them early in the voyage. though he had not yet informed them that he had done so. They had g great deal of trouble with the chief mate. who had perhaps treated them harshIy. rendering them desperate and urging them to the crime which they committed. In the opinion of the captain. they had been drinking for some time before the commission of r.
 The casta;n said that on the night of the killing someone knocked at the door of his cabin and told him that a sailor had fallen from a mast and had broken his leg. He replied. di- recting that the injured man be brought in. and he arranged a table on which he could be laid. Then he stepped out of the cabin. and was confronted by Hobbs, who began shooting. He fired four times, every shot taking effect, but all the wounds were flesh wounds. Hobbs then struck him with a belaying pin and stunned him. Just then Nixon came around the corner of the cabin. when Hobbs shot him through the body. killing him. Why he should have murdered the second mate the captain could not say. for he had always been kind and considerate to tine men. Oisten. the chief mate. against whom they had the greatest grievance. had locked himself in his cabin.
 Then. as wolz had described. the men fled to the forward part of the ship. and for the next two hours busted themselves in the construction cS g raft. which they launched. As they were boarding it Sears fell into the sea. but was dragged out by his I companions They had taken nothing | on the raft but a little bread and a | bucket of water. AS the raft was | passing the vessel Hobbs cried out | -Hurrah for thef American flag." The captain and the first mate fired at the raft as it passed astern. but their aim in the darkness was uncertain | and ineffective. The raft soon passed | out of sight. and the vessel hove to | until daylight Then the sea was sur veyed with a marine glass having a range of eighteen miles. but neither the raft nor any other vessel was in sight. The raft. the captain said. was constructed of two blanks. about twelve feet long. two feet wide. and two inches thick. The nearest rand was $50 miles distant.
 The deposition of Chief Mate Ois- ten was practically the same. Both stated that Hobbs revolver was weapon of 32 caliber. It was argued | by one of his friends last night that | that testimony alone ought to clear him. No Arizonian would be caught 1 with anything less than 2 A.