Other days

100 YEARS AGO Dec. 28, 1917

MOUNTAIN HOME — Dan Woods, who lives near Calico Rock, and Lige North, who lives near Lone Rock, were arrested Tuesday in connection with the murder of Ellen Cockrun and her daughter, May Smith, who were found shot to death near their home in the mountains December 4. Ed Deal, a deputy sheriff, brought in North, and Bill Jones, an Izard county deputy, arrested Woods. Just what connection these two men, who are step-brothers, are believed the have played in the gruesome tragedy is not known.

50 YEARS AGO

Dec. 28, 1967 CROSSETT —A Cummins Prion Farm inmate has written Sheriff B. A. Courson of Ashley County that he has new information about a 1963 slaying at Hamburg for which two men have been convicted. Courson said he thought the letter might be “a hoax and a clumsy one at that” but that he intended to go to Cummins today to talk with the prisoner. Last week, the Crossett News Observer received a letter postmarked at Morrilton and signed by a Johnny Hoyle Higgins Jr., which said that the two men convicted of the fatal stabbing of Tommy Rodgers, 20, were innocent.

25 YEARS AGO Dec. 28, 1992

• A fire early Sunday morning destroyed the sanctuary of the Rose City Church of the Nazarene at 4611 Lynch Drive in North Little Rock. The Rev. William Roy Edwards, the pastor, says his congregation will be worshipping again by Wednesday, although he doesn’t yet know where. The fire was discovered about 2:30 a.m. Sunday by a North Little Rock police officer, who turned in the alarm. Edwards said someone called him about 2:45 a.m. with the news. “I figured it was a little fire,” he said, “but when I got close, I looked up and saw the glow, and I said ‘Oh, God!’”

10 YEARS AGO

Dec. 28, 2007 FAYETTEVILLE — A judge denied bail Thursday for the Mexican restaurateur at the center of an immigration case that Hispanic leaders denounced as a “quest to rid” Northwest Arkansas of “undesirables.” U.S. Magistrate Judge James Marschewski ruled that Arturo Reyes Jr. will remain in jail until trial on charges of harboring illegal aliens, while his wife, Silvia Reyes, was released on $25,000 bond. No trial date was set. Before the hearing, members of a newly formed group blasted the government for what they consider selective enforcement.