
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 20, 1990                   TAG: 9004200894
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

NOT AWARE OF BEING BIGAMIST, HOBBS SAYS

Frank Van Dyke Hobbs, the accused bigamist wanted in Virginia, says that if he was ever married to two women at once, he wasn't aware of it.

"I've have never lived with more than one woman at a time," Hobbs said in a brief telephone interview from jail in Harris County, Texas.

Hobbs, 53, said in court Thursday that he will fight extradition to Wythe County to face charges that he was married to three women at once.

He is being held without bond. Bill Delmore, an assistant district attorney in Harris County, said Hobbs' attorney has tried to contact him about setting up a bond hearing, probably next week.

Wythe Sheriff Wayne Pike opposes letting Hobbs out on bail, because Hobbs has escaped custody repeatedly since he skipped out on his scheduled trial in Wytheville in 1984. Since leaving Virginia, he has been spotted in Tennessee, Texas and Mississippi.

If Hobbs gets out on bond, Pike said, "He'll be gone. I don't know what I'd do."

Hobbs said in the interview that the good side of him has not been reported since he was arrested Sunday in Houston as a result of a story on the Fox network TV show, "America's Most Wanted."

"I don't drink, smoke, use drugs or anything like that," Hobbs said. He said he has made numerous civic contributions in the places he's lived and that there are many people who will vouch for his honesty.

Pike said Thursday that he had received a call from a woman who says she was married to Hobbs in 1976. She said she knows of two other wives of Hobbs that authorities had not known about, Pike said.

That would bring the number of wives that Hobbs has had over the years to at least a dozen, the sheriff said.

Pike said the woman who called him Wednesday said Hobbs used the name Robert Edward Byrnes. That is different from most of Hobbs' other known aliases, which generally use some part of his name.

by CNB