The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-04-05
BOY SLAYS AN AGED MAN Clyde Felt Cuts aroat of Samuel ,llins. A sTRt STORY IS TOLD |Youlh Says the Dead Man Was
 Bent on Suicide. Police Believe That Behind the Crime is Tale of Moral De- generacy Which Has Few Equals.

Salt Lake, Utah. April ,4.-Cylde Felt, a boy barely 15 years old. today confessed to the police that it was he who cut the throat of Samuel Collins. the aged watch man of the Wasataka mineral springs, whose body was found last Sunday in a small cave in the hillside above Warm Springs. The deed was done, the boy claims, only after repeated urging by the old man. who told the boy that he in- tended to kill himself anyway as he was tired of living. After cutting Collins throat, Felt says he took the old man clothing and hid it under a pile of bould- CTS, walled up the entrance to the cave as best he could. wiped the blood off the razor and his finger, then went down the hill and washed his hands in the stream. Collins, he said, had given him little money for killing him.
 Young Felt told the police yesterday that Collins had committed suicide after arranging him to wall up the entrance to the cave so that his body could not be found. Early this morning, in com pany with two policemen, the boy went but among the hills to locate Collins
 
 for the old man the day of his death. Ar ter several hours search Felt broke down.
 II killed the old man. he said, but could not help it. He made me do IL. We did not go up Ensign Peak, ana l did not have any valise to carry. The old man told me to tell that story if his body Twas found. When we got up to the little cave he began undressing asked him what he was doing that for, and he said he was going to commit sui- eide. I said. oh, don't do that while am up here. Then he said, I want you to kill me Here are some stakes and some rope You tic me down and then cut my throat'- did noS like to do it.; but he begged so hard that 1 just could not stand it. He took the rope and wrap ped 1t around his legs and got me to tie his arms to his side Then l took the razor. He kept on begging and finally 1 just took the razor and gave one slash across his throat and jumped out of the hole and ran. He had told me to bury his clothes. l went and got the pile and carried them away down the gully and buried them. Then 1 went back and the old man was dead. 1 took some rocks and built wall in front of the cave for about a foot. But l got scared and did not finish it. so l came back the next day and finished walling up the hole. l could not help doing 1t. The old man could make me do anything he wanted to-
 Felt insists that he was alone with Collins when the murder was committed. Nevertheless the police believe that the boy has not told all of his story and arc working on the theory that others were implicated. Behind the crime Is story of moral degeneracy that has few parai- lels. Collins. according to the police, had a number of the boys ini the neighbor- hood completely under his influence and express the belief that his death was the culmina ton of a plot on the part of the boys to kill the old man and thus rid themselves of his influence over them. Young Felts, it is claimed by the police, was a reader of dime novels.
 It is stated by the county attorney that charge of murder in the second degree will be made against the boy.