Arizona republican., 1905-04-16

day and got to talking with him about vessels and gradually the conversation drifted around to the tragedy on the Leicester Castle. Wo,z in his testi- raony had spoken of this meeting and from his testimony it was inferred that was the first that the ranger had ever heard of the case but Sparks said that he had known of it previously. He communicated the information he had received from Wolz to Captain Ryn- ming of the rangers and dismissed the matter from his mind. He said that the captain went to San Francisco and laid the case before Consul General | Bennett. In this the story differed l somewhat from that of the consul gen erals the day before who made no men | ton of any conversation with Captain | Rynning but was understood to say | that he had met Sergeants Sparks and | Wheeler in his office at San Francisco. ! Ranger Sparks described the arrest of :. Hobbs at Clifton. He said that when | he took him into custody he told by | islanders that the arrest was made be- l i cause Hobbs had turned loose some Mexicans whom the rangers had ar rested. He said that he did that to keep down any demonstration that might be made if the populace should 1 learn that Hobbs might be taken to 1 England to he tried for murder.
 i The ranger had in his pocket the : warrant of arrest for extradition but he said he did not intend to serve it unless Wolz could possibly identify ! Hobbs as the murderer of Second Mate John Bennett Nixon.
 The only other witness for the pros ecution was Sergeant Wheeler of the l rangers whose story was quite similar . to the relation of Sergeant Sparks. | There were several differences but they ! were not essential.
 When court convened in the after noon the prosecution announced that it rested. The defendant was then called to the stand His testimony be- gan with his earliest recollection. He was born in Texas thirty-five years ago and had lived in nearly a dozen counties of thot state, his father being engaged in the stock raising business. He left home finally and came to this territory fourteen years ago. His de-
 scription of lis wanderinGs in Texas was almost as confusing as had been the day before of WOlz's description of his wanderings over the face of the i earth. But Hobbs said that he had never been out of the state of Texas until he came to AriZon. That was to , prove that he could not be w. A. Hobbs the murderer, who had at one time , lived in Litchfield. III.
 After coming to Arizona Hobbs was engaged in various occupations until in 1900 he became deputy sheriff at Q : Clifton to Sheriff James V. Sparks v who had Just been elected to that of | flee. Sho~iff Sparks had been in of a flee ever since and the witness had ever f since been a deputy. The witness said |, that from that time until the present
 he had never been out of the territory d but onco and that was for two days
 He had never been out of his county a for a longer period than one month and n that time he had not gone out of the
 territory. That time had been iron - the latter part of January until the n latter part of February. 1902, which by a the way was the year in which the
 murder on the high seas had been com x, mitted but that event took place or T Sept. ?.
 if But for one thing Hobbs might havt ; a hard time in establishing an alib n for the human memory is very veal .a in things that have happened even tw,
 or three years ago. The thing tha
 made it easier for Hobbs was the cap - ture of Augustin Chacon which cOul,
 be established by date and that wa
 about the only incident in the defens
 that could he so established.
 could easily be shown that Chacon wa
 captured by the Arizona Rangers nea
 the Mexico line on Sept. l. of 1902
 At that time the defendant was engag
 ed with two other men in digging
 well on a ranch belonging to Sherif E Parks twelve miles from Duncan. Tn
 sheriff happened to be there at tha
 time. On that day Deputy Sherif
 TObn I Sr19TkS c9u1p tO bP ranc
 from Morenci with a telegram for hi 3a brother announcing the capture c
 ChacOn. The sheriff immediately start lS ed after the murderer and a day-0r tw - later the defendant left for Solomon
 vile where he remained the greate
 part of the time until the fOllowin
 Nov. 21 when Chacon was hanged. Tn
 defendant had assisted at the hanging
 tying the legs of the murderer.
 r From the time of the bringing
 Chacon to SolOmonville until his exc Id cution the defendant had been employ
 ed about the jail as a guard or a deat " watch. There was introduced as ev SS dence a demand upon the county fC e payment of the defendants services |" guard from Sept. f until the end
 that month.
 Another bit of documentary evidenC
 was the application of the defendal
 for registration in Graham county bt . tween Sept. of that year and the tin A of the election in November. The "a was also offered a certified copy of u .H great register for that year shOwir H that he had been registered on Sept Fl All of these things went in over the ol l jections of the prosecution.
 The defendant said regarding Wo M that he nevr saw him nor heard of hi
 until he was brought to Lordsburg N the rangers on his way to PhOeni Z There he learned for the first time tn N Wolz was the man who had identifi E him for some crime the nature of whit
 had not been fully explained to hi
 Regarding the identification at Gift
 as related by Wolz, Sparks and Whe H Ter, Hobbs said he was confronted Ea r..ll..dN whom be saw He said th