The Washington times., 1905-05-23
MISTAKEN IDENTITY
IN STRANGE CASE
Narrow Escape From Trial
for Murder OH High Sea.
RECOGNIZED BY sHlPMATE
He Was a Resident Of Arizona and
Had Never Seen Salt
Water.

PHOENIX, Ariz., May 23.-In the
spring of 1892 the Leicester Castle, d
British sailing vessel. cleared from San
Francisco for q trip around the Horn.
Among the sailors recruited IN San
Francisco were three land-lubbers-W.
"A. Hobbs. a man named Sears. and a
man named Turner. ali OF whom Were
found al sailors boarding house, kept
by a man named Murray
All thee signed as able seamen. 10
that extent deceiving Captain reattie, of
the vessel, and his associate officers.
Hardly had they left the Golden Gate
before they began to chafe under dis
eipline they were unused to. There
was almost daily trouble until the night
Of September 2, 1902, the vessel then
being about ten leagues from Pitcairn
Island in the South Seas.
Trouble With Officers.
While Captain Peattie was asleep the
landIubbers had difficulty with First
Mate OIsten who, In fear for his life,
hid in his quarters. The mutineers were
faced by the second mate. John Bennett
Nixon. witt. whom they had always been
On fairly friendly terms The quarref
ended in the fatal shooting of Nixon
by Hobbs and the wounding of Captain
Peattie. who had been aroused by the
noise and reached the scene Of dis
turbance just after the murder.
The three mutineers fed to the fore
castle. where they constructed g small
raft and launched it and put to sea with
but one pail of water and but very lit
tie provisions. The ship dropped an
ehor until daylight, when. there being
cicx Of In
sumed that they had drowned.
Early in April of this year Courtenay
Walter Bennett, British consul general
at San Francisco, accompanied by T
&. k Carnac, counsel for the British
government, appeared in Phoenix, the
capital of Arizona. and placed before
Chief Justice Edward Kent complaint
charging w A Hobbs, alias Lee J.
Hobbs" of Clifton. Ariz., with the muir
der of John Bennett Nixon, and asked
that he be arrested. &ad proceedings
were begun for his extradition United
States Marshal McCord placed the war
rant in the hands Of State Ranger
Sparks TO serve Sparks was Hobbs
most bitter personal enemy
Hobbs in Custody.
Accompanied by a posse CT rangers
and another man Sparks arrived at the
depot in Clifton on the evening of April
:, and a few minutes later their man
was in custody, Hobbs making no re-
sistance. He was hustled away to pri-
vate quarters. where he was guarded
until the train departed the next morn
ing for Phoenix, 800 miles distant, where
the extradition proceedings were to be
held.
The other man accompanying the
ranger party was Christian George
Frederick John WOLF, who was one of
the crew of the Leicester Castle. He
identified Hobbs positively.
1t was known by the townspeople gen
orally that Lee J. Hobbs had not been
out of the county during the summer
when the crime with which he was
charged was committed on the nigh
seas thousands of miles away. But the
wheels of two governments Were IN mo-
ton against him. Only the decision
of one man-Chief Justice Kent-stood
between him and death; for once extra
dited, 1t would take a fortune 10 pro-
duce In an English court the necessary
testimony for his acquittal, the more es-
DeciaIiy as the rangers and others were
already prejudiced against him, and be-
lieVed him guilty.
AT the meeting delegation was form
ed prepared to follow him TO Phoenix
and aid in the establishing of an alihi.
This delegation consisted Of three for