The Murder of Ben Bates

Floyd County Times 
April 3, 1931, Friday

Floyd Officer Stage Manhunt.  Seek Isaacs,
alleged slayer of Ben Bates of Jacks Creek

     Floyd County officers this week were leading a gang search for Willie Isaacs of Dry Creek, Knott County who is alleged to have shot and killed Ben Bates, 30 yrs old, on Jacks Creek Friday night of last week.
     The killing is said to have been the result of a drunken brawl. Bates a native of Letcher County was unarmed it is claimed, when Isaacs fired two shots in his body early Friday night. The shooting took place at the lower end of the Inland Steel Company Camp on Jack's Creek. 
     Word reached the sheriff's office here Wednesday from deputy sheriff T. a. Bates that efforts to locate the alleged slayer had proved fruitless and that it was believed that he was hiding on Dry Creek across the mountain from the scene of the slaying. Wednesday night, sheriff B. L. Sturgill and Deputy sheriffs M. T. Stump and W. T. Martin went to Jacks Creek where they joined officers in  a search which was as vain as earlier attempts to locate the fugitive

The Search For the Murderer of Ben Bates

Alleged Slayer Surrenders Here
April 3, 1931  Floyd Co. Times

Willie Isaacs in Jail After Eluding Search:
Accused as Bates' Slayer

Willie Isaacs alleged slayer of Ben Bates, who was shot to death March 27 on Jack's Creek came to Prestonsburg on Thursday of last week and surrendered after having eluded Floyd county officers who had been searching for him intermittently for several days.

Isaacs was still in the county jail here Wednesday morning when witnesses arrived to testify in the grand jury investigation of the case.

Bates was unarmed, it is claimed at the time of the shooting.  He had accosted Isaacs to inquire if Isaacs was the man who had drawn a gun on them a short time ago.  It is reported here.