Cobb Howell appeared in The Red Ponies. He was the killer of Bill Sutton.
Bill found out that Cobb was running a scheme where he would switch out his horses during the race by convincing everyone that his faster horse was unable to be ridden. He would race the slower horse to raise up the odds against his horse, and then when the odds against his horse got high enough, he'd bet a large sum of money on his horse to win, switch the horses, and earn a large sum of money.
Bill caught on to the scheme and refused to participate in it, so Cobb killed him and coerced Sam Starks, the apprentice to play along.