The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1900-12-08
FRANTIC FOR BABY
Alice O'Donnell Cut In
fant's Throat Because
She Wanted Her
Own Child.
JEALOUS OF OTHERS HAPPINESS
Her Little One Was in an
Asylum and the Separa-
ton Prayed Upon
Her.
JEALOUS OF OTHERS HAPPINESS


on her babe, while she herself was bereft
of her own; to hear father and mother
planning to make a Christmas for their
little one, while hers would have but the
Christmas fare of foundlings' home-it
was more than Alice ODonnell could en-
dure She killed the child of her en-
ployer.
Il don't know why / did it, the nurse
and murderess cried Historically, in MAX
ing full confession to Captain Cans, of the
Hamburg street police station, Brooklyn.
81 don't know that l did it at ALL / just
heard Mr. and Mrs. Jones talking about
what they were going to give little Archer
for Christmas, and 1 thought of my own
little baby that 1 couldn't see, and
couldn't stand it.
after that all is blank to me-"
The nurse, who is also a mother, part
ed by stern necessity from her child, is
Alice O'Donnell. whose home is in Jer-
sey City.
The parents, whose baby she slew, are
MIR. and Mrs. Arthur L. Jones, of No.
127 Palmetto street, Brooklyn. The baby,
if his life had been spared until today,
would have been nineteen months old.
The O'Donnell woman was captured at
$3.50 o'clock this morning. She was found
calmly sleeping at the home of Mrs. Cor
rigan, No. 26 Portland avenue, Jersey
City.
Formerly she lived as the wife of a
man named Richard Dooney, it is said,
at No. 81 Diamond street Her husband
having deserted her, according to the
story that is told, she was compelled on
not0 o \
child in the Sixty-eighth stree founding
asylum.
Four days ago she went to board with
Mrs. Corrigan, and there Detectives Price
and French, of the Central Office, found
her, after getting her address from an
intelligence office
The stricken father spent the night in
company with detectives searching every
where through Jersey City for the mur-
deress.
Alice was my friend, I thought she
said. "Oh, how could she? How could
she?
She has stayed with me before. and
she thought SO much OF - she laughed
and played win 9iafi;; Thought she loved
him.
"she came to the house and wanted to
stay and help me.
How long are you going to stay this
time, Alice?' l asked her.
/" Oh, I'll stay till you get the police to
put me outn she said.
81 thought it strange, but how could I
have known? Oh. how could I have
known?
I'm ouh front room we have boarder.
The fire in his room had gone out at 5
O'clock andw hen he came in at / went
III to tell him about it. left Alice in the
kitchen with the baby When I came back
Alice was gone and the baby was lying on
the floor
aT snatched him I'm
"'Alice! Alice! cried. Come here;
my baby is dying' His throat was
slashed and he wasn't moving.
"All right, all rightp she called back.
She was half way down stairs, and she
went right on"
The woman had found a razor in a
closet off the kitchen and with THE she
killed the child.
So deliberate was she in all her move
ments that She washed her hands at the
sink, washed the razor, replaced it in
closet that it took Detective Fegbyersae
two hours to find it. All this before she
turned to flee, all in the space of time it
took the mother to go to the front of the
huse, speak to the boarder and return.
Alice O'Donnell shows no glimmer of
comprehension of the enormity of her
crime or of its dire consequences.
s'Why did you kill the child?' a re-
porter asked when he saw her in her cell
this morning.
The woman smiled.
81 don't know she said.
did anyone suggest it to you?"
stNo,' and she smiled again.
of timer - 80 :
No"
what put it into your head?"
st don't know"
who told you there was razor in
the closet?"
II saw it there earlier in the day.
"Did you think of killing the child when
you saw it?''