The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-12-10
C0yFESSES HER crime
o.,;Iah Fails Tells How She Killed
Jerome Kern.
uwDrR DELIBERATELY PLANNED

49,. oId Man Had Tortured Her Ever
So. She Was Child He Interfered
,,, Her Matrimonial Plans and Then
~. Resolved to XIII Him Her Last En-
cement Was to the Son of Her Victim
The Murder
voverly. Ia, Dec. 10.-If the confess
Tan ~ Delilah Fails is TO be believed,
..o murder of Jerome Kern on the 23d
:, last August reveals a chapter of
,,oral turpitude the enormity of which
:. onnalling. Delilah Fails is girl %
.oors of age, who lived at Spring
branch. southeast OF Waverly, and
AR the Kerns and was engaged to
r,uHam Kern. His father objected and
- tho morning of Aug. 20 he was found
dood in the woods a short distance from
his house and about 200 feet from the
main travelled road.
The murder caused considerable OF
.orsation. but no clew was discovered
,,rtu last week, when William Kern
confessed that Delilah Fails committed
mo murder and that he was implicated
80 the extent Of knowing what her plans
,,ore When this story was told the
Girl protested that it was untrue, but
9nallv when young Kern was brought
into her presence and reiterated his
Glory she broke down and confessed. In
exnlaining her reasons for killing Je-
rome Kern she said:
Had Always Tortured Her.
"Ierome had always tortured me, ever
since I was 10 years old. He wanted
xxyith him than and
would not. and 1 told his wife, and he
made her believe there was nothing in
n | was engaged to John Lewis and
Jerome broke that up. l know Jerome
was 10 blame a good deal in that. That
was before John went to the peniten-
tiary. would have married John after
he was convicted If 1t had not been for
Jerome
Referring to the murder she said that
she and Will Kern began planning to
kill his father soon after the 4th or
last July, but that Will was afraid to
do the deed himself. Continuing, she
said:
Sunday night before ! killed Jerome
Will Fails and Will Kern and me came
home from church, and while my
brother went up and got hay down for
the pony l told Will Kern 1 had fixed
n with his father to meet me up there
the next morning. 1t was O'Clock
by my watch when l started the next
mo,ning. / met nobody that / remem-
Der Of / drove right along.
Lost No Time Over 1t.
The first i saw Of Jerome was when
was going through The second gate.
Twas opening the gate when l saw him;
he was coming down in Bingham's pas
ture lust a little ways from the fence.
shut the gate. got in the buggy, drove
down the HILL and he was standing
there waiting for me. i knew II l got
off the wagon and went down there
that / would kill him. j had the re-
volver Just inside my coat. My coat
was buttoned up. j pulled the revolver
out mad shot him quick, there, about
your necktie, as he was facing me, and
he whred around on his knees little
ways, and as he fell forward l shot him
on the right side of the back. He fell
forward and said something, l don't
know just what. l don't know whether
his clothes caught fire or not. / drove
home and unhitched the horse myself
Mother was there and the baby. That
was dll lndl was OH the ten dNiNS
and my brother were on the other five
acres. Right upon the hill from the
house northeast it joins Jerome's
place"
Says She Prayed tai God.
The girl then details what she did un-
til dinner time, and that Will Kern
came and that he said something
about looking for his father She told
young Kern where his fathers body
could be found. In closing her confess
sion she says:
when / first began to think OF Kill
ing Jerome / began to pray to God t'
give me strength to carry this through
and Kill Jerome Kern. for II was ms
WILL and after ! did IL l prayed that n
forgive me. and 1 thought he had Tor
given me, because I didn't keep think
ing of it, | think ! was born to do al
this. / have told you the truth In TINS
statement, just to get ii off my mln'
and make a clean breast Of IL ana lie
you know the truth. and that is all tn
reason that / have told Ii"
Identified by Tattoo Marks.