State v. . Gray

There is evidence on behalf of the State tending to show that Dad Watkins, late of Stanly County, had been missing about sixty days when, on the night of- 31 October, 1925, an old barn, standing about a mile or mile and a half north of Albemarle, was burned, and in the ruins was found the charred body of the deceased, badly mutilated'. It is the contention of the State that the defendant slew the deceased in an effort to rob him, and after cutting off his hands and feet and head, placed his torso in the old barn, and set fire to the building in an effort to destroy all evidence of the crime.…