The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-02-27

mack and the West Indianapolis men who
heard of the Knapp confession several
years ago would have made the facts pub
lie and secured knapp's Indictment for
murder and rearrested him when he was
released from the penitentiary In 1902 that
his third wife. Hannah Goddard Knapp,
who was murdered by him i'm Hamilton, o.,
on Dec. Y, 1872, and her body thrown In the
Miami river. would have been still alive
and unknown to Knapp. and that his In
dianapolis wife, formerly Anna Gamble,
would have been in no way connected with
the 1t would also have saved the loss
of about $1,000 in property and two acts or
incendiarism by the versatile criminal, who
is guilty on his own confession of nearly
every crime from petit larceny to murder.
In the confession given TO Womack Knapp
detailed the murder of the little girl. which
had up TO that time been a mystery He
described how he had killed the child In
barn in West Indianapolis by beating her
with a Ratchet, assaulted her and finally
crowded her body into a small box and
left il lying in the barn on July l9. 1885. He
described his connection with the assault
of the DRAPER girl and told OF all his &C
tons while living in Marion county. The
confession was properly attested and was
secured through the agency OF Charles
Jones. another prisoner sent to Michigan
City from Indianapolis. Jones had been
closely associated with Knapp during his
confinement in the jail in this city and
from several remarks Knapp had made I'M
guardedly he became convinced that his
fellow prisoner knew something of the Geb-
hard murder, which was still fresh In the
minds of the people, number of arrests
on suspicion of completely in the crime
having kept the case alive. Jones insinu-
ated several times TO Knapp that the muir
der mystery worried him and during his
Knapp, he would have fake nightmares, in
which he would talk of the childs mys-
terious death. He continued these night
mares and reported to WOmack that they
haxi nd he UaS
firmly convinced than ever that Knapp
knew more about the murder than he pre-
tended.
SECURED A CONFESSION.
When Knapp was taken to the Prison
North to serve his sentence of ten years
which was secured for him by Sheriff
Womack, who found much Of the evidence
that landed him in the penitentiary. Jones
was sent with him, having been tried and
awarded Imprisonment shortly after
Knapp. At the prison the sherin related
the circumstances of the murder to War
den Harley and told the warden his sus-
picions. Mr.. Harley conceded with him
in the belief th9t continuation of the tao
tics adopted would do no harm and placed
Jones and Knapp in the same tier OF cells,
and permitted them to associate with each
other Finally the effort was successful.
and Knapp Informed the prison officials
that he wished to make statement OF a
he had never been tried. Mr.. Harley
telegraphed for Sheriff Womack, who went
to the prison. and. after much questioning.
the most atrocious and brutal crimes ever
visited on the community.
The murder Of little Ida Gerhard was a
shock to the public when 1t was discovered
three weeks after her disappearance from
her home. IL WOODBURY. avenue, West In
dianapolis on July IS, 1896. The child had
been searched for all over the city and
descriptions of the little one as she had
last appeared wearing little pink pinafore
and considerably larger than the average
three-year-old baby. were telegraphed and
communicated TO all small towns in the
vicinity of Indianapolis. Little children
were picked up on the streets for Ida Geb-
hard and the police and detective force, as
sisted by the newspapers of the city, spent
their entire time in searching for the little
one. The mysterious disappearance had
ceased to be matter of news interest
when j. j. Williams and William Silvers
found all that was left of the little one.
and hundreds of men had devoted much
time to the search. when Williams and
Sfivers. who lived on River avenue, went
into the alley in the rear of their home to
play baseball. The position taken by Will
nams to catch the ball thrown him by
Silvers was close to the woodshed of the
Gerhard home on WOODBURY. avenue. While
standing there Williams detected a pecu-
liar odor that seemed strange to him, and
when he called Silvers's attention to II
the two men began search for cause
of the stencil. They soon found that il
came from box. which, heaped with Other
boxes in the Gerhard stable, was securely
fastened by a board cover. They pried the
boards loose and were Mortified to find the
mutllated and decomposed body OF the
little girl, her pink frock soiled by her LIES
blood and her pretty little face mutilatec
beyond recognition by the cruel blows from
Ratchet; her hair matted with blood tha
m hpl
head. The Ratchet, rusted and corrodeC
with blood. and the little hat, bloody and
tho out b Of shape found iyn,
dences of the fiendish cruelty and brutality
OF the murderer.
EXCITEMENT WAS INTENSE.
| After the discovery of the murder excite
ment in West Indianapolis and in the cit,
was at fever heat. The Gerhard HON,
attracted hundreds of men, and talk O
lyaching was as frequent as expressed
suspicion of the supposed murderer. Hat
the murderer been captured II seemed Ger
tain that he would have summary justice
as the indignation of the entire communit.
was so great that the police officials wer
| fearful lest an innocent man might suffe
from the vengeance of the mob.
| After some plan of search had been for
| mulated and many rumors and THEORIES
proven groundleSS, John r. LinSon, q rail
way engineer Of dissolute habits, was sus
pected as the guilty man. Linson was al
uncle of Silvers and at one time lived witt
him. The old man had been seen In tn
neighborhood of the Gerhard stable at tn
time of the disappearance of the child, an,
his inability to satisfactorily explain
his whereabouts or establish an alb
because of his poor mental condi
narcotic stimulants. led the polio
to believe that in a state of idiocy Linsol
had committed the crime. After ne has
| recovered from the effects of the morphin
and whisky with which he was influence,
| when arrested Linson explained where h
had been and after a few days was re
leased. One OF the chief reasons for sus
pecting him was that he seemed to hav
| something bothering him, and, during hi
| confinement, he told the story of his past
| which was interesting at the time Linsol
| had, 1t seems, been sent to the penitentiar,
| In California for murder and had been re
leased from prison by a pardon from tn
Governor, who had been an attorney TO
| his defense. Linson's extenuating motiy,
| for the crime saved him from the gallows
| His story was that a sixteen-year-old sis
| ter had been ruined by his victim and tina
| he had followed him all over the world I,
be avenged. From India to Australia h
| had pursued him, and when he found hin
In San Francisco he murdered him in col,
| blood. Linson excused himself for tn
/ crime by saying that his baby sister ha,
| been left in his care by his dead mother
| and that he reproached himself for hi
| neglect and the subsequent ruin of his sis
| ter until he had atoned for it by KILN,
his sisters betrayer.
| PARENTS WERE SUSPECTED
| After Linson's release little was heard O
| the Gerhard murder. George Gerhard tn