Arizona silver belt., 1905-04-20
lQIiciQ| PQDe[ OI GI|Q County.
THE HOBBS EXTRADITION CASE

proceedings before Judge Edward Kent
 at Phoenix, confirmed the expectation,
 of not only Mir. Hobbs friends, but of
 everybody else who followed the de-
 velopment of the case and read the
 testimony as published in the Phoenix
 papers. Wolz, the chief witness for
 the prosecution, seemingly, told n
 straightforward story and, apparently,
 was honest in the belief that Hobbs
 was the man with whom he shipped at
 San Francisco in July, 1902, and who,
 on September ?, of that year, partici-
 pated in the mutiny and murdered the
 second mate of the vessel. It appears
 to have been, on Wolz' part, a case of
 mistaken identity, and without any ul-
 terior motive. Such cases are not rare
 in the records of criminal law.
 Capt. Thomas Rynning's and Lieut.
 Wm. Sparks connection with the case
 is radically different. As officers of
 the Arizona Rangers, they are expected
 to be active and fearless in ferreting
 out criminals and securing their con
 viction, but they are also expected to
 exercise fair degree of intelligence
 and judgment, and freedom from per
 sonal motives, in actions involving the
 good name and liberty of fellow citi-
 zen. In their endeavor to fasten the crime of murder upon Lee Hobbs they exhibited neither intelligence nor judg.
 ment. The arrest of Hobbs and the attempt to make a case against him was, to say the least, very ill-consid cred action, apparently without any plausible excuse.
 Captain Rynning's home was in Gra ham county for two years. Lieutenant Sparks business as ranger had taken | him frequently into that county and A number of times Go Clifton. They both knew Hobbs. They must have known that he had been a peace officer at Clifton for long time. If so seri ous charged was made against him as hat he was accused of by Wolz, the natural thing for them to have done first was to quietly investigate as to whether or not Hobbs was absent from Graham county and the territory at the time of the alleged crime committed on the high sea, several thousand miles from Arizona. Five minutes investi- gation at Solomonville, the county seat of Graham county, would have revealed to them that Wolz' accusation was wholly unwarranted; that Hobbs, the accused was at the time of the com mission of the alleged crime in the south seas, deputy sheriff of Graham county and in the discharge of bis duty as such.
 Yet Lieutenant Sparks, upon the un- supported statement of Wolz, a stranger without credentials, and with out making any effort to satisfy him self as to the probable truth or falsity of the charge, cabled the English gov ernment in regard to the matter, and Captain Rynning made the journey to San Francisco and communicated the important discovery they had made to , the British Consul General. Truly, the captain and his lieutenant are great lawkshaws!
 The manner of Hobbs arrest at Cliff ', ,on, the refusal of the rangers to state Tor what crime he was wanted, or to accept bonds for his appearance, and .lso their refusal to permit the pris- Iner to talk with some of his friends n fact, the whole proceeding was so and uncalled for as to justify f he charge that it was instigated by f lesire to 'get even" with Hobbs for an T Illeged grievance. {
 The Copper Era, in commenting on t he case says: ''lf this is sample of | he detective work of the ranger force, hen it would be we'll for them to retire E rom that business at once. Their at , empt to connect Lee Hobbs with a murder committed in the Pacific ocean, when almost every man in Graham c county knows that he has not been out I )f the county for a greater period than ! i've weeks in fourteen years, is proof | sufficient that they are totally incompe- I tent for that work, or that their motives are actusted by prejudice with the in- tent of widening the breech between their service and the sheriff and his deputies in this cQlRty,P