"THREE CONFESS TO MURDER OF MAN AT TOBACCO PACKHOUSE"
The Daily Free Press, September 3, 1921
"The Sheriff's office at Snow Hill Saturday announced that three prisoners in the Greene County jail there had confessed to conspiring to murder Will Whitley, a Walstonburg farmer, Whitley was shot and killed while asleep at a tobacco barn early in August.
Those held are Mrs. Whitley, widow of the man slain; Thomas Hayes, a farmer neighbor, and Wright Rouse, a negro. Rouse's alleged confession was to the effect that the woman and Hayes offered him $500 to commit the crime. He was not paid, he stated.
The Sheriff's office said Mrs. Whitley would be removed from Snow Hill to a prison elsewhere because of lack of accommodations for women prisoners. There had been no threats of violence, it was stated. Mrs. Whitley, who is 37 years of age, apparently does not realize the seriousness of the charge against her, it was said. The Sheriff's office stated that the confessions indicated an illicit love affair between the woman and Hayes led to the murder.
Rouse is a one-armed negro, something of a character in the Walstonburg section. The murder of Whitley was a particularly brutal crime. Mrs. Whitley's indifference has impressed officers, who believe she is incapable of appreciating the gravity of the crime."
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