Hernando County Sheriff William Cobb

William Donnell Cobb was the sheriff of Hernando County from 1920 to 1932. During his term as sheriff, he shot andkilled two men, both for the same reason. 

In the early 1900s women abused by their husband’s didn’t have much recourse. There were no women’s shelters or services to help them. In Hernando County the only thing they could do was to ask the sheriff for help.

In 1930, John Warren Springstead’s wife asked for help. The sheriff and his wife let her move into their house with them. The Cobbs had done the same for other women, who wanted to escape a bad marriage. The sheriff got Mrs. Springstead a job in a dentist’s office. He escorted her there every morning and home after work.

Springstead told people he wanted his ring back and he didn’t care if he had to kill his wife and the sheriff to get it. One morning he went to the dentist office where his estranged wife worked and began threatening her. Sheriff Cobb told Springstead to leave and pushed him toward the door. Outside on the steps a fight ensued and Cobb shot Springstead.

Sheriff Cobb’s political enemies believed Cobb didn’t do enough to combat the thriving bootlegging business in Hernando County. Many people thought he was working with the moonshiners. The rumor spread Springstead had information about the Sheriff’s illegal actions and was about to go to the authorizes. The sheriff shot Springstead to stop him from talking. Six years later, when Cobb was no longer sheriff a vindictive prosecutor, a friend of Springstead’s. pressed charges for the killing. It took a jury less than half an hour for Cobb to be acquitted.

In 1932, James Cager Rogers attacked his wife. She grabbed her children and ran to a relative’s house. They called Sheriff Cobb, who tried to arrest Rogers. Rogers resisted using physical force. Cobb shot and killed him. This time, he was acquitted of any wrong doing the next day. Rogers was a WWI veteran. His family stated, he was not the same since he came home from the war.