Hoyt Budd Cobb

An alcoholic and narcotics addict, Cobb financed his expensive habits through robbery, eventually turning to murder. Convicted in the fatal beating of a Georgia holdup victim , Cobb was serving life when he escaped from the state prison, at Jessup, in April 1965. A federal warrant was routinely issued, charging him with unlawful flight to avoid confinement. On July 20, 1965, 58-year-old Frances Johnson, a door-to-door cosmetic saleswoman, vanished from her home in Tampa, Florida. One day later, Joe Cross, a gas station attendant in Dade County, noticed blood dripping from the trunk of a customer’s car. Cross made note of the license number, which matched that of Frances Johnson’s missing vehicle. Upon recovery, the car yielded fingerprints , and Joe Cross identified Cobb’s mug shot as a likeness of the nervous driver. Frances Johnson’s decomposing body was discovered on September 26, beneath a quilt, on a deserted path northeast of Tampa. An indictment for first-degree murder was returned against Hoyt Cobb, and his name was added to the FBI’s „Most Wanted“ list on January 6, 1966. Five months later, to the day, a tip led federal officers to the address in Hialeah, where their man — as „Robert Jones“ — had been residing. Cobb was taken into custody without resistance and returned to Tampa for his murder trial.