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Note: HUNTER, 30, IS SLAIN BY UNKNOWN HAND; FOUND IN SMALL SEWER DITCH __________ Blood-Stained Door Knob, Pencil And Cigarette Only Basis Upon Which Officers Probe The Killing __________ BODY IS MUTILATED, LEADS TO "THRILL" DEATH THEORY __________ Robbery Not Believed A Motive For Murder; Ardmore Citizens Roam Streets Through Night __________ A long distance telephone message to The Daily at 2:35 o'clock this afternoon said Eugene Poff had confessed to stabbing to death Harry Hunter. According to the information received here Poff told officers he stabbed Hunter when the former entered the store and found Hunter and Mrs. Poff there. When Hunter was stabbed, Poff is quoted as having told officers, he staggered away toward the door and the supposition was that he reached the ditch before he fell. _______________ Stabbed in the heart -- a gaping wound of three inches in depth -- the lips slashed, the head beaten, the almost unrecognizable body of Harry Hunter, 30-year-old clerk, was found shortly after midnight in a sewer ditch about 150 years from the store in which he worked at Ardmore, small community in the northern limits of Limestone county. Hunter had been missing since later afternoon and examination of the body brought the conclusion that the man must have met his death shortly after dark. Coroner Griggsby Griffis, of Athens, was called to the scene shortly after the discovery of the mutilated body and held and inquest. Shortly after 3 o'clock this morning the jury, headed by J. G. Jones, postmaster of Ardmore, rendered the verdict that Hunter had been murdered by unknown parties. Eugene Poff aged about 60 years and his sons, William and Gillespie Poff, each aged about 20, were held for questioning in the Limestone county jail after the elder Poff, a restaurant operator at Ardmore, was declared to have been found near Swan Creek, a short distance from Athens, at an early hour this morning. The two youths were held for questioning after they had started from Ardmore to Athens and had been stopped on advices from Ardmore. As the story of the slaying slowly unfolds, Limestone officers and people of the Ardmore community are as mystified as they were at the first reports of young Hunter's disappearance. Without an apparent motive, with only the blood-stained knob on the front door of the A. D. Whitt store and a blood-soaked cigarette and pencil found near the body to guide the investigation, there remained today the two theories of the people of Ardmore and the police - that the murdered man was the victim of a "thrill" slayer, or maniac, or that if robbery had been the motive that the person or persons committing the crime, fiendish in details, had become frightened at realizing the atrocity of the act and had left the scene without robbing the store, or taking money off the body. Child Cries The crying of one of the Hunter children on the front porch of the Hunter home while awaiting the return of the father first aroused the suspicion of people of that section. Hunter, usually home before darkness, did not return at the usual hour. Shortly after the search for the missing man was begun and it was not until shortly after midnight that the mutilated body of the well known young clerk was found in a sewer, some four feet in depth. The body apparently had been taken from the store to the ditch, a distance of about 150 yards. Hunter's keys were in the lock at the back door and the same door had apparently been prized open. The cash drawer and the safe in the store had not been rifled. Hunter's watch and money had been untouched, found on the body at the time of discovery where it had been thrown in the sewer. Call The Coroner Immediately after the body had been located Coroner Griffis was called from Athens. Arriving, the coroner assembled a jury for the purpose of investigation into the affair, the jury reporting a verdict of murder. The hastily assembled jury took the evidence as revealed by the blood-stained knob at the front door, the unexplainable prizing of the back door. while keys were hanging in that same door, the blood covered cigarette and pencil found near the body and after consideration of all the assembled evidence remained in the quandary as did the entire Ardmore citizenship, wondering at a motive for the killing of the popular young clerk. Ardmore, throughout the night was a scene of tramping feet, muffled talk as the citizenship became aroused over the death of the young man. Like a gathering storm about to burst in fury the citizenship of the little town milled about the streets through the night and into the early morning hours, plainly at a loss as to what steps might be taken, wishing only that there might be some solution to the terrible death that had visited upon one of the citizenship, wishing only that justice might be swift and that in some manner the death of the one might be paid for in the death of another -- the person responsible for the taking of the young life. Has Sister Here The slain man, while not having well known in Decatur, was a brother of Miss Martha Hunter who is a resident of this city and who has been an attache of the Benevolent hospital as a nurse. Miss Hunter was informed of her brother's death late last night and later left for Ardmore. The news of the death came as such a shock that Miss Hunter hardly grasped the full meaning of the tragedy after she listened to the fearful news transmitted to her over telephone from the Ardmore community. Funeral services had not been arranged up until a late hour today, relatives of the slain man not having sufficiently recovered from the terror of the night to think of the necessary details. Young Hunter is survived by his (Continued on Page Five) Hunter, Slain By Unknown Hand, Found In Ditch _____ (Continued from Page One) wife and two children and a number of other relatives, as well as a large number of friends in the Ardmore section. "Thrill" Death? Limestone county officers were pondering today over the motive for the crime and the circumstances revealed in the death of the young man. They pieced together the facts as developing and went back into the years to discover if there was a possible enmity against the young clerk. Officers attempted to find a basis for the prized door at the back, the keys hanging in the lock of the same door and the blood-stained knob at the front door. They then looked at the cash drawer and the safe -- untouched. They reviewed the fact that the watch and money was found on the body of Hunter. Then they turned to another theory, the possibility that Hunter was killed by a maniac or a fiend. The condition of the body upon discovery led strongly to the latter belief as being substantial. Five Are Held Ben Polley and Robert King were held on suspicion, having been taken into custody by Ed Evans, night chief of police at Athens and Deputy Sheriff Bernard Arnett. Evidence against them was not sufficient to warrant holding the, it was indicated. Eugene Poff, aged restaurant operator at Ardmore, was declared to have been found this morning near Swan Creek by J. L. Fowler and A. B. White, Ardmore merchants, who were accompanied by Deputy Sheriff Arnett. Poff, it is declared, stated that he had not spent the night at Ardmore, but had left to walk to Athens and spent the night in a barn enroute to the limestone county capital. He is said to have stated that he was coming to Athens for the purpose of purchasing some meat this morning. William and Gillespie Poff were held for questioning after they were understood to have left for Athens and were stopped. The trio, it is understood, was taken back to Ardmore and the wife of the elder Poff was questioned by officers. She is declared to have stated that she was in the store where Hunter clerked late yesterday afternoon and that she fled from the store after hearing someone attempt to enter the back door. Mrs. Poff is also said to have contradicted her husband's statement that he spend the night in a barn while enroute to Athens.
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