The Wilmington morning star., 1940-09-05
MOBLEYS, OTHERS
ARE FOUND GUILTY
Continued from Page One)

town tell me that when they were
young a man wasn't considered one
OF the gang until he had had some
experience with a colored girl.
But" he said, unless the two
race respect each other, there will
be trouble. If the colored and white
races are going to live in peace and
harmony each must have respect for
the integrity of the women of the
other race"
In sentencing Brown, the judge re-
marked that he regretted the law
made it impossible for him to sen.
tence him to more than 80 days, be-
cause, he said, he believed Brown
was what the state had painted hIn
to be: a procure for the house OPP
Grated by Mrs. Mobley.
Numerous witnesses, all residents
of the neighborhood in which the
Mobley house is located, told Of see
ing negro men go into an alley on
which the house sides and several
testified to seeing negro men go into
and come out of the front door of
the house. Two testified to seeing
Mrs. Mobley get into an automobile
with negro men and another testi-
fled to seeing negro CCC boys leave
the house at night and get into a
taXicab.
All the state witnesses agreed the
L hn11ca ho1 n L1J ror,r+o+.o-
The nuisance trial came yesterday
morning on the heels of another un-
savory case, a preliminary hearing
in which Wilton Thorpe, brother of
Hampy Thorpe and TOO Tough to
Die" Thorpe, was bound to superior
court under 81, 500 bond on a charge
of having committed a crime against
nature.
Prior to the beginning of the nui-
sance trial, w. L. Farmer, defense
counsel, offered to submit pleas of
guilty for the three white women if
the court would agree to allow them
to leave the county for a period of
five years. County Solicitor H. Win.
field Smith would not agree to the
trade" and the trial was begun.
At the same time, however, Far.
mer asked the court to clear the
courtroom of spectators, which the
court refused to do, holding that the
court should be open to the public
except in those cases in which the
law specifically gives the judge the
right to exclude spectators.
Patrolman L. E. Skies, of the Will.
mington police department, generally
credited with closing the Oasis and
the house of ill repute operated in
connection with it on Princess street
between Water and Front streets
several years ago., was the first state
witness.
He told of conducting the raid on
Mrs. Mobley's house, saying he found
Ernest Brown and Maude Taylor ly-
ing on a bed in one bedroom and
that he found Mrs. Mobley, Ritter
Mobley and the two negro men in a
locked ear bedroom, the shades OF
which were down and the bed in
which was, he said, "disarranged.'
He told of finding a pair of spectacles
in the bed which, he said, were iden'
titled as those of one of the negro
men.
In the bedroom, he said, there was
a trap door in the floor which was
large enough for a man to come
through into the house.
On cross examination he admitted
that the clothing of the women in
the room with the negroes was not
disarranged at the time he entered
after the door had been unlocked,
that McCollum was dressed in work
clothes and had a trowel with him
with which he was picking at the
plaster on the wall but denied that
McCollum at that time was working
on the plastering on the wall.
Officer John Rich corroborated
the testimony of Skies about the
raid and said the house in question
has a bad reputation as a meet
ing place for neg1oes and white
women.
Under cross examination he adj
mitted that he moved the mattress
on the bed in the room in which
the women and the negro men were
found while he searched for whis-
key, but when asked if that didn't
account for the bed being disar-