Muhlenberg County Kentucky
News: S
The Killing of Charlie Smith
2 October 1931
Stobaugh, Tapp Held to Jury
John Stobaugh, 34, of Central City, and Lawrence Tapp, 18, of Beulah, participants in a gun battle at Central City last Friday night in which Tapp's father, Lee Tapp, and Chief of Police Charlie Smith of Central City were slain, waived examining trial in county court in Greenville Monday afternoon and were held without bond to await grand jury action.
The two are charged with murder in connection with the killing of Smith. A special grand jury will probably be convened this week to consider the case, it was said, and the charge against Tapp, according to County Judge T.R. Roll, may be modified, the slain police officer having said on his death bed that the younger Tapp did not participate in the actual shooting.
Carried On Stretcher.
Stobaugh, whose right leg was broken by a pistol bullet, was taken to court on a stretcher. Tapp limped into court, having been wounded in the left leg and right arm.
Possibility that bullets from Stobaugh's gun killed both Chief Smith and Lee Tapp, the latter seated at the wheel of an automobile in which the two Tapps and Stobaugh were riding into Central City, was being considered here. Coroner R. G. Allen and a jury heard evidence to this effect Monday afternoon prior to returning a verdict fixing responsibility for the death of Lee Tapp.
Bullet holes through the car lead officials to believe that Stobaugh, who dropped to the ground when he opened fire on Chief Smith, killed Tapp at the wheel and mortally wounded the officer. The course of the bullets leads to this view, it was said. The bullet which penetrated Tapp's heart, it was shown, was of a different calibre to those of the police chief's gun.
The weapon found in the car with Tapp's body, it is supposed, might have been tossed into the motor vehicle by Stobaugh when the latter took flight, Stobaugh's gun not having been found.
- Source: Hustler [Madisonville, KY], 2 Oct 1931.
10 Sept 1935
The Parole of John Stobaugh.
To the Editor of The Courier-Journal.
I have just learned to my utter astonishment that one John Stobaugh, who was sent to the Eddyville penitentiary in 1932 from Muhlenberg County for the murder of my husband, Charlie Smith, who at the time of his death was chief of police in Central City, Ky., has been paroled.
My husband, in attempting to arrest John Stobaugh, Lee Tapp and the son of Lee Tapp, whisky runners, Tapp having prior to the time of my husband's death killed a Federal officer in Hopkins County, was murdered in cold blood. Tapp was also killed, but Stobaugh survived and was sentenced to serve fifteen years in the penitentiary.
Some weeks ago when I learned that there was a probability of Stobaugh's being paroled I went to Madisonville and protested in person to Governor Laffoon.
At that time Governor Laffoon promised me in apparent good faith that Stobaugh would not be paroled.
I learn now that he broke the solemn promise made to me and that he has turned this murderer out.
Ethel Smith. Redland, Calif.
- Source: Courier-Journal [Louisville, KY], 10 Sept 1935.
Updated April 6, 2024.