The Oskaloosa herald., 1902-04-17
MAKES A CONFESSION
Prof. Miller Acknowledges Murder
of Girl in Detroit.


Detroit, Mich, April 12.-After "a
hours spent in the Grand River avenue
police station, Prof. Joseph M. Miller
broke down Friday and confessed that
he murdered Miss Carrie M. Jennett,
one of his former pupils, last Wednes-
day night with the small Ratchet
which was found in his kitchen with
blood stains upon it. Friday afternoon
a warrant was issued for him in the
police court and he was arraigned
there at four o'clock. He waived an
examination and was committed to Jail
without bail. To-day he will be
brought into the recorders court and
asked to plead guilty. If he does so,
the self-confessed murderer will be on
his way to the Jackson penitentiary by
noon, to spend the rest of his life.
His confession is an awful story of
impending disgrace and finally muir
der as means of averting it. He adj
mitted that there had been illicit re-
lations between Miss Jennett and him
self for the past two years, and said
1t was the result of these relations that
led him to kill her. The girl was in
delicate condition. She refused to go
to lying-in hospital, as he wished her
to, and demanded that he abandon his
family and leave the city with her.
Wednesday night they met to discuss
her trouble and decide on some action.
Miller says that Wednesday afternoon
he decided to kill her if she refused toi
do as he wished, and he therefore car
ried a small Ratchet with him to their
rendezvous. They met and walked out
Thirteenth street, talking it over, and
finally sat down on the sidewalk. Miss
Jennett renewed her demands that
Miller leave the city with her. He says
he told her it was impossible, but she
still insisted. "By that time I was
pretty near crazy" he said; "the i'm
pulse seized me, and while she was still
talking I reached into my overcoat
pocket, drew out the Ratchet and
struck her"
1t was impossible to induce him to
go into the details OF the butchery. He
told of putting the Ratchet back in
his pocket, of seeing his victim
stretched upon the sidewalk in her life
blood and then of his walking home by
the most direct route. Reaching home,
he said he threw the Ratchet on the
ground in the woodshed. that he then
went in at the back door of the kitchen,
washed the blood off his hands at the
penstock, and then, going into the din
w. 20 Mrc
Shoemaker, a visitor, for whom he
made tea and prepared lunch. the
three afterward eating and joking to-
gether.
Boy Confesses to Patricide.
Paw Paw, Mich, April 1.-THE ex-
animation of Glenn France, aged Is,
who, with his mother and two sisters,
was arrested at Manton, Mich, Thurs
day, on the charge of having killed
Caleb France, the boys father, was
held here Friday before Justice Row.
land. The members of the family
were arrested on evidence gathered
by private detective which tended to
show that Caleb France, who was sup
posed to have committed suicide on
February last was murdered by his
son. The officer exhibited statements
purporting to have been signed by
Mrs. Effie B. Forman and Lulu France,
sisters of Glenn, that the boy had shot
his father. On the witness stand FRI
day the two sisters swore that Caleb
France had become angry because
Mrs. Forman, his daughter, proposed
going north to join her husband and
that she intended taking her baby
with her. Mrs. France sided with her
daughter and thereupon France
knocked his wife down on the bed
and began to choke her, saying he
would kill her. Glenn then came into
the room and shot his father, who died
almost instantly. The boy afterward
confessed to the court that he did the
shooting. At the time of the tragedy
it was given out by the family that
France had shot himself.