Sources: New York Times

Mobley excerpts from selected articles published before 1950

Fire Menaces the Capitol But is Quickly Subdued continued

"Mr. Lynn said he assumed that Mr. Moberly had been smoking and that a smoldering cigar or cigarette might have been the cause of the fire. Moberly was unable, after being rescued, to tell a coherent story of what occurred.

"Moberly told Lieut. Commander Calber, the House physician, who attended him in the office of Representative Garner of Texas, that he had gone from the Senate end of the Capitol to the document room, which he used as a studio. As he sat down he suddenly saw flames all around him. The next thing he knew he was in Representative Garner's office, two floors below.

"Moberly talked incoherently as a result, according to Fire Department officials, of the smoke he had inhaled. He insisted he had not been smoking and had not gone to sleep and that he could not tell what happened before he realized that the room was in flames. At first he said he never smoked cigarettes, only cigars. Then he said he did not smoke at all. The physician said it would be futile to ask him questions until he had fully recovered from his experience.

"Mr. Lynn said it was not usual for Moberly to work at night unless he had a rush job.

"'I don't know if he was working,' he added. 'He had no rush job that I know of..'

"... Moberly, now chief decorator, has been a decorator at the Capitol for twenty years. He is 61 years old ..."

Blaze in Capitol Remains Unsolved continued

"A friend of the artist, Sam Hall, told Mr. Lynn that, calling to see Mr. Moberly, he found the artist leaning over his desk in the studio, fast asleep. Hall did not wake him but picked up a paper and started reading. He smelled smoke and then saw it coming from under the thin partition which separates the studio from the reserve document storage room.

"Mr. Hall found a fire extinguisher and tried to put out the flames, but failing, called to the operator of a small elevator that runs from the corridor off the rotunda and told him to sound an alarm. Meantime, Capitol police had arrived and they tried to arouse Mr. Moberly, who had been overcome with smoke ...

"Mr. Lynn made public a written statement giving Mr. Moberly's version of his movements up to the time he was overcome. It read:

"'Mr. Moberly states that he went to the studio between 2 and 3 o'clock in the afternoon of the fire after doing some work in the Senate wing of the Capitol. He began working on drawings ... Around 4 o'clock he fell asleep on his desk. He was awakened by a noise which sounded like some one trying to break in. He rushed to the inner door leading to the model room and opened it. The flames were so intense at this time that he was overcome and does not remember anything until he came to on a couch in Representative Garner's office. He states that the reason he stayed in the studio on this particular afternoon was because he lives alone and it was lonesome in his living quarters. He would rather remain in his studio and work to pass the time away.

"'Mr. Moberly states that a tub of rags was near a wooden table in the model room. These rages were waste, soaked with oil. ,,, He states that it is customary to pour water into this tub to prevent fires, but does not recall that water was put in there on this particular day. He states that he did not place the rags in the tub, but that the other Capitol artist had been restoring some paintings ...

"'Mr. Moberly further states that he is not a smoker and had not been smoking at any time during the day of the fire ...'

"Mr. Lynn said that he asked Mr. Moberly about rumors that he had been drinking and was told by Mr. Moberly that he had 'taken a couple of drinks about 12:30 but no more ...'

"Most of the damage ... was confined to the artist's quarters ... A number of portraits which Mr. Moberly and the other artist were retouching were counted as lost ..."

Groundwork Laid to Test Labor Act continued

"The told the [National Labor Relations] board they had been employed from seven months to five years by the company and that their work had at all times been satisfactory until they joined the union. Then, according to their stories, they were called in by the management, first charged with dereliction in duty and then dismissed. However, they testified that they had been warned, each one in turn, by a superior officer, who said:

"'You should have kept your nose clean and remained away from the union.'

"... Mr. Moberly said that company officials had tried to get him to say who was running the local union. Soon after attending a union meeting he was transferred to Sunbury, Pa., then returned to Pittsburgh, and soon afterward discharged for 'too many road failures,' although he asserted that he was not taxed with having been in any way responsible for the breadkdowns ...

"The hearing will continue tomorrow."

NINE-STORY PLUNGE KILLS RAIL LAWYER, APR 14, 1932; pg. 10 continued

Mr. Mobley had engaged a room at the hotel as soon as he arrived from Houston, Texas, Tuesday night. John H. Shary, a director of the San Benito & Rio Grande Railroad, a Missouri Pacific division, who accompanied him on the trip, engaged an adjoining room.

Soon after arriving, Mr. Mobley went to keep a dinner engagement with George Gordon Battle, general counsel for the Freeport Sulphur Company. He returned to the hotel at 11 o'clock and went to his room. At 3 A.M. hotel employes, who had heard the noise made by something striking the roof of the extension, investigated and found the body. They notified Mr. Shary.

Mr. Shary said that Mr. Mobley, who walked in his sleep, had been suffering from a cold.

Mr. Shary denied that the business that had brought Mr. Mobley to New York was in connection with the loans aggregating $23,250,000 that the Missouri Pacific has been seeking from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, of which $12,800,000 was granted recently.

Mr. Mobley's body accompanied by Mr. Shary was shipped last night from the Pennsylvania Station. It will reach Houston tomorrow.

Mr. Mobley was a member of the law firm of Andrews, Streetman, Logue & Mobley of Houston. He was born in Van Zandt County, Texas, in 1875. His early education was in the Van Zandt County schools, and he attended later the Summer Hill Select Schools at Omen, Smith County, from which he was graduated in 1898. He entered the University of Texas and was graduated in the class of 1901.

Elected County Attorney of Henderson County, Texas, in 1902, Mr. Mobley served in that position until 1906. He was then elected to the State Legislature and represented Henderson County from 1907 to 1910. In 1910 and 1911 Mr. Mobley was Assistant Attorney General of the State in charge of criminal appeals. He moved to Houston in 1912 and soon afterward joined the law firm with which he was last connected.

In 1902 Mr. Mobley was married to Miss Myrtle Storey of Austin, daughter of the late W.R. Storey, an Austin business man. The have three sons, John A. Mobley Jr., Brooks Mobley and Marion Mobley.

Mr. Mobley was a member of the Houston County Bar Association, the Houston Club, the Houston Country Club, the University Club, the Knights of Pythias, the Red Men and the Woodmen of the World.

JOHN A. MOBLEY'S DEATH, APR 16, 1932; pg. 14 continued

As I am informed, the report of the Medical Examiner, who investigated his death, used these terms, although expressly stating that the death was not to be classed as suicide. Nevertheless, the statement that he possibly may have jumped from the window will convey, I fear, to some the suggestion that he committed suicide.

There is no foundation whatever for the belief that Mr. Mobley took his own life. On Tuesday evening I had dinner with him and with some other gentlemen on a matter of business. He was in excellent spirits, discussed his business affairs with his usual interest and acumen, and was making his plans for the coming day. He affairs were in excellent condition, his private life was most happy and there was nothing in any of his circumstances which might include him to suicide. He left no note or message of any character, and all the surroundings in his room would indicate that he fell accidentally from the window.

Mr. Mobley was a man who took a most vivid interest in all the affairs of life and was one of the last persons with whom the idea of suicide could be associated.

He had great public spirit and was deeply interested in the benevolent and philanthropic enterprises of his city. He had everything to make life worth while. His death is a great loss to the community and a blow to his many friends.

Geo. Gordon Battle

New York, April 14, 1932.

FLORIDA SHERIFF'S MAN TRAP WIPES OUT THE ASHLEY GANG, Nov 16, 1924; pg. X8 continued

Old-time outlaws were the Ashleys and the Mobleys ... they belonged to the Jesse James school of felony and operated in the true western-story manner. For years they murdered and robbed and bootlegged within twenty miles of polite Palm Beach.

When outraged citizens decided, last January, that the Ashleys and the Mobleys were making bank robbery and jail-breaking too much of a habit, a posse discovered their headquarters quickly enough. The expedition ... lost a deputy sheriff, but it rounded up eleven of the members and their families. John Ashley, 65, the patriarch of the brood and the parent of the worst of the lot, died next day in the county jail from gunshot wounds ... They boasted that no Ashley had ever served or would ever serve a complete sentence in a Florida jail ... Bob Ashley was killed in 1915 when he tried to liberate his brother John from jail in Miami ... Although the public has been inclined to regard John as the prize bad man and leader, the family itself gave the hero's mantle to Bob and never altogether concurred in seeing it passed on to John .. For the last two years young Hanford Mobley was the acknowledged head and brains of the outfit, and Bob Ashley was his hero and model ... There is no doubt that his regard for Bob made him the most reckless of the lot, impelling a seventeen-year-old boy single-handed to raid the liquor men's "bank" on the West end, one of the Bahamas, and a few days later to walk into a bank where he was known and blandly cash a cashier's check that he got in the loot. Caught a few weeks later, after robbing the bank of Stuart in broad daylight, he replied when reminded that the offense might mean a twenty-year sentence: "I'm young yet There will be plenty of time after I get out." There was, for he escaped after a few months.

He was the product of his family's vicious influence and especially of the memory of Bob Ashley, his uncle ... His uncle and brother-in-law, John Ashley, was a thoroughly bad lot ... When it was noised about that he had threatened to "get" Sheriff Bob Baker of Palm Beach County, to avenge the death of his father, Joe, it did not cause consternation ... Now they are wiped out ... Aside from the women and children, only Bill Ashley and Wesley Mobley, father of Hanford, are left, and both are small potatoes as bandits go ...

FLORIDA BOY BANDIT IN ANOTHER EXPLOIT, Mar 16, 1924; pg. E1 continued

"Oh, yes, it does. My name's Mobley," and he backed his opinion with two guns. The train stopped and he went on his way undisturbed.

... the young man is wanted by the Florida officials as a fugitive from justice, for a bank robbery, highway robbery and murder and by the American and British Governments for piracy on the high seas, robbery and a few minor counts ... he has been identified as one of the eight bandits who two weeks ago held up and robbed sixty guests of The Plantation, a roadhouse north of Miami, letting the air out of the tires of all automobiles parked in the vicinity in order to delay pursuit.

Such exploits ... display the qualities that made a boy of high school age the acknowledged leader of a gang that has been a thorn in the side of South Florida for the last twelve years.

Just where the Ashleys originally hailed from is ... not a matter of record ... By speech and appearance the elder Ashleys and Mobleys are typical "cracker" folk and the homestead where Hanford Mobley grew up was, until it was burned in the raid, representative of many "cracker" homes scattered about the edges of the Everglades and further North. The outfit did not become outlaws from soft living. The men are a hard-drinking, rough speaking lot, still faithful to their two gallon hats the year round and indifferent to coats and collars. The women are no more elegant. Their men's booty is not spent to buy them luxuries of apparel or to release them from manual labor ...

Hanford Mobley's only escape from the rather miserable home life were [sic] his school days. He did go to school up until 1921. To see him about the streets of West Palm Beach up to the time of his big coup in the Spring of 1922 he might have been almost any small town youngster ...

No one paid particular attention to him until word seeped out ... that he and two companions had successfully held up and robbed of $8,000 the saloon "bank" at West End, a liquor depot in the Bahamas forty miles off the Florida coast ...

The West End expedition established Hanford Mobley as a promising bandit, but it was his robbery of the Bank of Stuart in broad daylight a few weeks later that started old-timers saying that he was the qualified successor to ... Bob Ashley ...

Assisted by two other boys, and himself disguised in women's clothes, he marched into the bank at noon one Spring day two years ago, held up the cashier and his assistant ... The vault was open and he unhurriedly passed some $20,000 over to his partner and the trio made their get-away in a car they had parked out front ...

Late that night Mobley and one of his companions were caught in a railroad station in the middle of the State ... They were brought back to the Palm Beach County Jail and a few days later the third was caught at Jacksonville and made a full confession.

Mobley ... would talk of anything else but the bank robbery and the West End exploit ... he never went to the penitentiary. True to the Ashley tradition one day the jailer in counting noses found that young Mobley had turned up missing. No Ashley has ever served out a sentence in a Florida jail and Mobley is an Ashley on the maternal side ...

BLOODHOUNDS TRAIL EVERGLADE BANDITS, Jan 11, 1924; pg. 19 continued

At a late hour tonight Sheriff Bob Baker of Palm Beach County, brother of the slain deputy with a posse of nearly 100 men and a score of blood hounds, was still endeavoring to pick up the trail of John Ashley, the only remaining member of the gang ... Meanwhile lookouts were posted to watch for the return of Hanford Mobley, who is said to have gone to Bimini in the Bahama Islands ... Young Mobley, who is married to one of John Ashley's sisters, is charged by the police of preying upon liquor running vessels off the Bahamas, in addition to bank robberies. The authorities say that Mobley's motorboat is well supplied with arms and ammunition, and a desperate gun fight is expected when an attempt is made to apprehend him ...

The second robbery of the Bank of Stuart in which Ashley and Mobley figured occurred in 1918. At that time Mobley attired himself in woman's clothing ... to allay suspicion ... both men were captured soon after the robbery and sentenced to prison terms ...

After the women members of the Mobley and Ashley households were brought to the jail here yesterday enraged citizens set fire to the homes of the two families near Fruita ...

2 KILLED, 1 WOUNDED AS POSSES BATTLE EVERGLADE BANDITS, Jan 10, 1924; pg. 1 continued

... Deputy Sheriff Fred Baker ... was shot and killed ... and Joe W. Ashley, aged sixty-five, one of the leaders of the gang, died from gunshot wounds this afternoon.

Laura Upthegrove, said to have been a camp follower, was wounded in the scalp and leg ...

.. three posses of citizens were tonight scouring the Everglades in the vicinity of Fruita in an effort to capture members of the gang who escaped.

Just before dark officers and posse members returned to West Palm Beach, bringing with them seven men and women alleged to have been associated with the gang. They are: Laura Upthegrove, Wesley Mobley, father of Hanford Mobley, young desperado; Mrs. Wesley Mobley, Mary Ashley Mobley, wife of Hanford Mobley, and daughter of Joe W. Ashley; Mrs. Joe W. Ashley, Daisy Ashley, Leota Ashley, with baby in arms, and a Mobley child, 3 years old ...

Hanford Mobley is a kinsman of the Ashleys and is said to be a leader of the band ... credited with most of the large bank robberies and similar crimes in this State in the past ten years ... When the illicit smuggling trade began between these coasts and Bimini, Bermuda, and Cuba sprang up, they entered it as hijackers. Then they entered the piracy class when they seized legitimate cargoes ...

McCorkle excerpts from selected articles published before 1930

Most references to West Virginia Governor William A. McCorkle and California Senator J.W. McCorkle are omitted.