Negro Jailed as Attack Suspect ; Youth of 20 Who Lives Near Site of Crime, Taken

Source Type: Newspaper
Publisher: The Tuscaloosa News
Place of publication: Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Date of publication: 06-15-1933
Transcript:

Negro Jailed as Attack Suspect

Youth of 20 Who Lives Near Site of Crime, Taken

Dan Pippen Placed in Jail as Officers Seek to Trace Trail of Clues; Negro Lived Within Half Mile of Maddox Home

Reported Seen Near Scene of the Murder

Arrest Made at Noon Following Intensive Search; Neighbors Throughout Community are Quizzed for Light on Mystery

Dan Pippen, 20-year old negro who lives within one half mile of the Maddox home at Big Sandy Creek was arrested and placed in Tuscaloosa County jail shortly after noon today as a suspect in the brutal murder of Miss Vaudine Maddox, 21, whose body was found Wednesday afternoon a quarter mile from her home. Miss Maddox had been missing since Monday morning.

The arrest of Pippen today followed an intensive search of the Big Sandy neighborhood for clues on the case. All deputies in the sheriff’s office were at work on the case yesterday and this morning. They questioned residents throughout the section surrounding the Maddox home.

Their widespread search revealed the new clue this morning when it was learned that someone had seen the Pippen negro walking across a field near the scene of the crime Monday morning. It was also said that Pippen was seen to pick up a rock with the expression, “I am going to kill some one with this.”

Pippen is said to have been known to the Maddox girl and this fact seems to fit in with the theory that someone acquainted with Miss Maddox had stopped her and spoken with her before making the attack. The girl’s skull was crushed with two heavy rocks, which were found near the body. The body had been dragged about 200 feet from the roadway, where first signs of a struggle were noted.

Deputies went to Fayette County this afternoon to question the four brothers and sisters of the Maddox girl to see if they can give any additional information which might link Pippen with the crime. The victim and the negro to are said to have recently engaged in a friendly dispute over sharing of a dog but the facts of this report have not yet been established. W. T. Maddox, father of the murdered girl, attended funeral services in Fayette County yesterday but returned to his home near Big Sandy Creek last night. The Maddox home is about one half mile from Greensboro Road and about one and one-half miles inside the Tuscaloosa County line.

The body of Miss Maddox, still recognizable although it had been dead for at least 48 hours, was found in the underbrush in a ravine 200 feet from the country road Wednesday afternoon by the girl’s two sisters, Gladys 19 and Audis 10. Investigation showed that no attempt had been made to conceal the body or to bury it, and that it apparently had been criminally assaulted either before or after the skull had been crushed with two blood-smeared rocks which were found nearby.