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THE HALLOWE'EN PARTY

by a Charleston Reporter

The night of October 31, Jack Dobbins, a good looking and popular 30year-old business executive of Charleston, South Carolina, went to a Hallowe'en party. It was the last party he would ever attend, for the next morning his lifeless nude body was found lying on a couch in his living room, his head savagely bashed in by a heavy antique candlestick which lay across his chest where the murderer had thrown it.

Jack's small house, which he shared with a young medical student, was in the old aristocratic section of Charleston, a dwelling remodeled from preCivil War slave quarters of the type that has special appeal to persons of a literary or artistic bent. The murder weapon was a two-foot long candlestick of brass with religious figures carved about its wide heavy base. Ironically enough it was one of the victim's most prized possessions and stood habitually with its mate on the dresser in his upstairs bedroom.

Jack and his housemate, Edward Otey, had gone to the Hallowe'en party together, but they did not leave together. Jack left first and was not home when Otey returned and went to bed. The next morning when the colored maid arrived at the house she discovered Jack's nude body on the

downstairs living room couch and called Otey who notified police authorities. An examination of the body showed that the victim had been struck on the head repeatedly with the heavy base of the candlestick, resulting in three fractures of the skull. The bloodied candlestick was found lying across the lifeless body cradled in the victim's arms. From the position of the body and cuts on the knuckles it appeared that the victim had been taken by surprise and had tried to ward off the heavy blows. Two glasses with partly finished highballs in them stood on the coffee table facing the couch. The room was in perfect order and there was no sign of a struggle having taken place. There was no sign of disorder in Dobbins' bedroom on the second floor either, but the mate to the brass candlestick used in the murder stood alone on the dresser and the victim's trousers, pockets turned inside out and emptied of their contents, were thrown across a chair.

The police were completely mystified. But they didn't stay that way long,, for shortly after the sensational story appeared in the newspapers, John Joseph Mahon, an 18-year-old airman stationed at the Charleston Air Force Base, surrendered to the police through a lawyer he had employed to represent him. The latter, who did all