Still A Mystery.
As To Who Killed Mrs. Sallie Mobbs Last Week.
Suspicion After Suspicion Falls to the Ground and Every One Yet Arrested Have Been released.

The killing of Mrs. Sallie Mobbs, an account of which was published last week, is still shrouded in mystery. [I have searched the previous issue twice and can not find the account mentioned. A page of election news seems to have been filmed twice, so perhaps a page of this issue is missing from the microfilm.—L. B.]

No new facts have come to light which can with certainty lay the villainous deed at the door of the author.

Suspicion after suspicion has arose in regard to different persons only to vanish in the process of investigation like mist before the noon-day sun.

So artfully was the crime covered up that the officers and others who have interested themselves in the affair have had but little material to work on. These, however, are leaving nothing undone to bring the murderer to light, and if persistency and hard work will accomplish anything, in spite of the odds against it, this terrible affair will be cleared up.

The negroes who were being pursued at the time of going to press last week, were captured at Canton Thursday afternoon. It was thought they would be brought to Cartersville on the north bound passenger train which gets here at 8:26 o’clock, p. m., and a large crowd of people were at the depot to see them. The parties making the arrest wisely left the negroes in jail at Marietta, fearing that in the excitement of the moment some unwarranted deed might be done. Many were in favor of taking them away from the officers, but the sentiment generally was that it would be better to wait and get more evidence as to guilt of the negroes.

Be this as it may subsequent events soon put at rest all suspicions against these parties. They were identified by the foreman at the Couper iron mines as being the ones discharged on the day of the murder for fighting, too late for it to be possible for them to have anything to do with the horrible affair. So as a matter of course they were promptly released.

The latest man to have suspicion directed to him is a white [sentence obscured by fold] there is a faint glimmer of circumstantial evidence. It is said that since the murder Dutton has been rigged out in new clothes and is wearing a new pair of shoes. The tracks made through the field would, it is said by neighbors, correspond with a pair of dod [sic] shoes, both run down at the heels, that were worn by Dutton previous to the murder.

Again Dutton was heard to make certain remarks expressing certain intentions of his which it is thought were carried out in the murder of the woman.

Last Monday the coroner had the jury that sat on the case to reconvene. They went to the cemetery where the body of the woman had been buried, which was disinterred. A post mortem examination was made, but very little different from the first investigation was discovered. In the opinion of the jury the woman was not raped.

The outside of the arms of the woman from elbow to shoulder were found to be considerably bruised and the end of a finger was pinched nearly off.

These bruises it is thought were made with a pair of officers’ nippers, and as Dutton owns a pair it is one of the links to the chain of evidence that is being wound around him. Dutton has showed his instrument to various parties, calling them “girl catchers.”

Dutton was ordered detained by those who had him under arrest and that he be brought and placed in jail to await a proper investigation. The jury then adjourned to meet again on the call of the coroner.

It is hoped this great mystery will be cleared up and the guilty one be brought to justice. The people are still greatly excited over the event.

Since the above was put in type Dutton has stood trial at the justice court and the evidence was not sufficient to bind him over and he was consequently released.

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The Courant American
February 12, 1891, page 5

His Excellency, Gov. Northern, has a proclamation in this issue of the paper, in which he offers a reward of $200 for the capture of the one who so brutally murdered Mrs. Sallie Mobbs, on the 29th of last October.