Part 1 of 2 Submitted by Mike Pitko The following article comes from the research done by Tracey Matthews and written for a class at Emporia State University while a student in 1997. The class was titled Flint Hills Folklife and the instructor was Dr. Jim Hoy.
“On a brisk October evening, shortly after the sun went down and the family had retired for the night, a noise was heard in Joseph New’s yard. (They had a farm near Star School and post office, which was about 15 miles southwest of Eureka). Amelia, his wife, urged him to investigate. When he stepped outside, shots were fired. Amelia, hearing the report of the gun, ran from the house, still in her night clothes, through the back door, to a neighbor’s, about three quarters of a mile away. Upon returning to the scene with another neighbor, the threesome discovered 40-year-old Joseph New’s body, lying where he dropped.
“The writer of this article found out that the Flint Hills area in Kansas is not a stranger to murder. There are places like Dead Man’s Canyon, Dead Woman’s Canyon and Dead Man’s Hallow. You just need to know the right person to tell the tale as well as where to look. The Friday, Nov. 5, 1897 edition of the The Eureka Herald contains the first mention of this particular event and Joseph New was indeed murdered on Oct. 31 of that year. It took Greenwood County, and the rest of Kansas for that matter, by storm.
“After bringing her neighbor, William Lukenbill, and another neighbor, G.W. Moore, back to the homestead with her about an hour after he was shot, Amelia realized Joseph was dead. Others came shortly thereafter and one was dispatched to Eureka for the coroner. Monday morning, the sheriff, county attorney and Dr. Grove, the coroner, all arrived to the scene. An inquest was conducted and among the jury members was George H. Dobbs, a person who will turn up later. The witnesses, Mrs. New and Nellie O’Hair, the ten-year-old girl who works at the farm, were questioned and their statements, according to The Eureka Herald, followed along these lines: Mrs. New told of hearing the noise outside of the house prior to the shooting and of her trip to Mr. Lukenbill’s. She further testified that she did not go near the body of her husband after the shooting, but left by the opposite door from the one leading to where the body lay. She gave as her reason for this that the first thought occurring to her after the shooting was that one of her brothers, Charlie, Will, or Lewis Becker, had done the deed, as they had previously threatened the lives of both herself and her husband and was afraid that she, too, might meet a like fate. Nellie O’Hair testified that she was looking out the window when Mr. New went outside, saw the flash of the gun and heard his last words: “Oh, my God.” Joseph New’s body was examined and the buckshot that killed him was found in his abdomen and breast. It was discovered that the murderer had stood under a tree at the corner of the chicken house, 34 feet from where Mr. New fell. The tree had powder burns and several twigs were blown away by the shot.
“Joseph and Amelia were married in Johnson County sixteen years earlier. After living there for a year, they moved to the Star neighborhood of Otter Creek Township, approximately fifteen miles southwest of Eureka. He had the reputation of being peaceful and industrious and had but a few enemies. The fact that Amelia hinted at some bad blood between her husband and her brothers gave rise to suspicion as to the cause of his murder. The brothers were questioned later that week, as to their whereabouts and all had solid alibis.
“Greenwood Countians were shocked to read in the Nov. 12, 1897, edition of The Eureka Herald that two people had been charged with the murder. The charge itself was not what shocked them, it was the people who were charged. George H. Dobbs, a 40-year-old widower and father of two children, and Mrs. Amelia New were arrested on the previous day. It took them both by surprise. It had been rumored for some time in the Star neighborhood where they lived, that there had been an intimacy between the two. After the murder, neither were immediately suspected, and they seemed unconcerned over the rumors. Then, Dobbs spent a great deal of his time at the New farm, presumably to be with Amelia. This alone would place the pair under suspicion.
“After the arrest, Amelia was taken to Wichita for confinement and Dobbs was jailed in Eureka while they waited for the preliminary hearing. Amelia returned to Eureka on the 21st and justice C.W. Reich visited her at the home of Sheriff Knox the following day. Amelia, who was described in the newspaper as a small, robust woman of about thirty-five years of age, and not particularly handsome, waived her rights to a hearing. Dobbs, however, did not. The courtroom was filled, mostly with residents of Otter Creek Township, the majority were women. The coroner was the first witness to be called. He related to the court how he had been summoned to the New farm early in the day, Nov. 1st and found Mr. New dead when he arrived. He recalled how Dobbs, a member of the original jury at the coroner’s inquest, offered to help look for the tracks of the murderer, of which, none were found. Nellie O’Hair also was called to the stand. Her story was the same as before and confirmed that Amelia left the house immediately for the neighbor’s house, in night clothes, instead of going to her husband. Joe Miller, a neighbor of Dobbs, testified that Dobbs had been to his house on the night of the murder and borrowed a shotgun. He also loaned Dobbs enough powder for three or four shots. Dobbs said he wanted to kill some skunks. Miller said he was at New’s the morning after the murder and on his way home an inexplicable urge forced him to stop at the Dobbs place. Dobbs was not there and he asked one of his sons if he could see the borrowed gun. The gun proved to have been fired recently as there was loose powder in both of its barrels. Miller asked if they had gotten any skunks and the boy replied that they had not, but thought “they would get him in a day or two.” Miller spoke with Dobbs later that evening and suggested that Dobbs looked as if he could be held responsible. Dobbs replied that he had not thought of that.
“Mrs. Ida L. Moore was the next witness called. She told of the intimacy between Dobbs and Amelia New. She said on Oct. 13, Dobbs and Amelia, along with his children and two little girls who were staying at the New’s, went to the circus in Eureka together. She also spoke of Amelia taking care of Dobbs during a long illness he suffered and the talk it caused in the neighborhood at the time. T.R. Denchfield further confirmed the alleged intimacy. He said that Amelia stayed with him until her arrest and told him if Dobbs had wanted her, he should have gone off with her and not killed her husband. He went on to say that she seemed to have lost all respect for Dobbs after finding out the evidence against him and the suspicion that she had a hand in the murder. Dobbs had been at work on the New farm, repairing a corn crib, and Amelia discharged him several days after the murder. That act alone was perhaps that of a guilty person. She also remarked to Denchfield, as he testified in court, in regards to Dobbs, “no telling what lies he will tell on me.” Perhaps she was fearful of being implicated by Dobbs as a co-conspirator. Miss Carrie New, sister of Joseph, testified that she had seen the pair at the circus in Eureka and claimed their behavior was “simply awful.” However, on cross examination, it was revealed that she had kept company with Dobbs at one time.
“A key witness, Jesse Dove, also of the Star neighborhood, took the stand and corroborated with the previous witness. He related a conversation he had with Amelia around the beginning of October. She told him that Joseph “was not treating her right” and that she would be “perfectly satisfied if she only had a husband like Dobbs.” She spoke to Dove again, later that month, about her husband’s ill treatment of her and the kindness of Dobbs. She asked him if he had heard any talk of their trip to the circus. In a later conversation, Dobbs told Dove that he had a hard time of things, being a widower, but could get along all right if he only had a wife like Amelia New. Dove claimed to have remembered such conversation immediately after the murder and began his own investigation. He found tracks of a woman’s bare feet across the corn field from the New farm to Lukenbill’s. In an adjoining row, going in the same direction, he found the track of a man. The tracks stayed together until within 200 yards of Lukenbill’s, where the man’s tracks stopped. He measured the tracks and they were the same size as those made by Dobbs shoes that were taken as evidence after the arrest. The shoes fit exactly in every way but one, the heel. The heel of the shoes had been cut in a horse-shoe shape. When they were cut is not known, but if they were cut after the murder, it would be a strong piece of evidence against Dobbs.
