Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-06-06
Confession by
 Strange Means
ecopyright. 1908. by Daily stozy Pub. O.,
TEDDY WILLIAMS

1 A FEW months ago was called into 1 A my chiefs office and there in- l troducedto the states attorney of East 1 Ohio; after the introduction the attor- ney who, had noticed looking me over | from head to foot, simply said, Il guess he will do." My chief turned to me and said, read this and tell me what you think of it, handing me paper with marked item. It was small country paper, a weekly issue, and told 1 its story in the following manner: The people in the south end of town were startled last night by the worst crime that has ever occurred in our county, if not in the state. Last night at 1o:3o p. m. Mrs. James and her son, who live next door to the Weeks fam fly, as most of our readers know, were aroused and frightened from their sleep by the sound of cries and shots from the Weeks home. The Weeks fam fly consists of MT. Weeks, Mrs. Weeks and her son John and daughter Mary, by her first husband, and the adopted son Albert. The pistol shots as counted by Young James were nine in number, and he said he heard Mrs. Weeks cry in feeble tones, "Oh, how could you?" And few minutes after the shooting stopped young John Weeks came to the door of the James house and shouted that some one had
 gotten into their house and killed all
 but him, and for Gods sake to send for help. By this time other neighbors had come and soon the whole village was there. The sight that met their eyes when they got into the house was one of horror. Mir. and Mrs. Weeks lay dead near the door of their room; in the hall few feet from his door lay the body of Alfred, and May, the daugh- ter, was found half under the bed in her room, as if she had crawled under 1t in fright or to avoid another shot. She was still breathing and Dr. Bimb restored her to consciousness long enough to answer the squire's question if she knew who had done the shoot ing. She said she did not know, asked for her mother and died. When the squire asked young Weeks (who is only l9) how he escaped, he said that he had come into the hall when he heard his mother scream, and that just as he did SO he heard his father say, "What do you want? My God, is it, you?" He grabbed baseball bat that was in his room and as he started down the hall he saw Alfred fall dead in front of him. He then ran back tohis room and jumped out of the window. That is all the informa tion the local police could gather. Officers have been sent for from other towns, and it is said that the lodge that Weeks belonged to will hire Chicago detectives to,work on the case. The Times is just going to press and will, if any further details are dis covered, issue an extra. The inquest will be held as soon as the coroner from s. can get here.
 Instead of answering my chief I turned to the attorney and asked what further details he had, as the paper was three weeks old. He replied that they had learned nothing of value; that part of the insurance money had been paid to the young man John Weeks, and that nothing was taken from the house, no arrests had been made except that of a tramp who had been found near the town the morning after the murder, but as he had no weapon on him and proved that he had come from 8 barn near the town he was not thought guilty, but was still held in jail on another charge. I was told to get ready to leave town and that night at late hour I was in E. I smoked a cigar or two trying to find a motive for the crime, and when at last fell asleep it was with strange ideas of motives. Was it some sworn enemy of the family2 Was it & burg lar? What reason would he have for killing all of them unless he was some one they knew? Nothing seemed to fit the case. l did not sleep much and early in the morning I was at the scene of the crime. Nothing about the house gave me any help. I looked un- der the window where John Weeks said he had jumped from and could see the deep impression of his heels where he had landed. I talked with the peo- pie that lived about the house, but they knew nothing of any value except that they all knew the different mem bers of the murdered family, and none had ever heard or an enemy Inc
 Harnesses said that they were very in timate and never heard of any one that they feared. That old man Weeks got
 good pension from the government and that Alfred was hard working blacksmith and John was the clerk In the town drug store; that he was
 studying to be q lawyer. When
 asked if they ever heard the Weekes quarreling they said not much except that John and his stepfather did not