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Now Claims He Served Four Years of Sentence Because of FearTAL AND ARTHUR PETITARRESTED BY OFFICERS1 ■Crime Was Committed In August, 1926—Whitmire On ParoleTal Petit and Arthur Petit an* in I Transylvania county jail, awaiting preliminary hearing, having been im-) plicated in the murdei of Jesse Mas-jters in August, 1926, by charges i made by Louie Whitmire, recently re-,leased from the state penitentiary byparole, where he had served four years of a fifteen-year sentence for the murder of Masters. Whitmire also is in jail. The hearing will be held before Magistrate F. E. Shu-ford Saturday afternoon. The Petits |and Whitmire live on the Pic-mshighway, this county.Whitmire's charges implicating thePetits in the murder were made first | to Deputy Sheriff Tom Wood, it is | said, who arrested Whitmire on Wednesday of last week on charges of store-breaking at Rosman. Sheriff ‘Wood brought Whitmire to the county jail, where, it is said, he later made same charges to others that he had made to Deputy Wood, implicating the Petits.Whitmire now claims, it is said, ithat Arthur Petit knocked Masters 'in the head, later cutting his throat .and slashing him elsewhere aboutjthe body.It will be recalled that Jesse Masters was reported missing from his usual haunts on August fifteenth. 1926. A searching party institutedsearch for the man, and on September 2, the body was found lying off the highway, in a badly decomposed state, the vultures having been feeding upon the body, and the head having been separated from the trunk, lying several feet away. Louie Whitmire and two Petits were arrested by the officers, but at the coroner's hearing the jury released the Petits and ordered Whitmire held for the Superior court* which convened tho following December,Judge Michael Sehenck pixsid d at k the court which . found Whitmire n- guilty of murder in the second fic-n, gree, and the defendant was sen-h tence to serve a term of fifteen it years in the penitentiary. Whitmire hi did not offer any evidence, nor did ho iy take tho stand.Whitmire married Tal Petit s daughter, who is a cousin of Arthur m Petit. Whitmire is said to claim that the reason he took the rap and off- »-ed in no denial of the crime was thai he m feared he would be killed if he told h the truth about the tragedy. He is d'quoted as having said that the Pet's its threatened to kill him if he ■ M h the truth or implicated the Pc* is. ig Now. it is said, Whitmire claims ihat he would prefer death to goingback to the penitentiary.Masters was unmarried. Whitmire is married and several children. Thecase created considerable excitement(Continued on jnuj* f ight)I - _i 1 «ii 1
Newspaper Details
Brevard News
Brevard, North Carolina, US
Thu, Nov 19, 1931
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Judy A.
USA 22 Dec 2022
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