The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1903-07-23
His Career Of Murder Extended 0yel
Ten Years.

AAAS W wa
Ten Years.
Hamilton, o., July 16.-Alfred A.
Knapp was convicted OF muder in
the first degree for killing his wife,
Hannah Goddard Knapp, by jury
In Judge Belden's court to-day.
The jury stood 10 for conviction
without mercy, and two for convic-
tion wirh mercy, being unanimously
for guilt.
The verdict is received with great
satisfaction by the public.
Knapp's sister and mother were
much affected when they heard the
verdict. The case will be carried
higher on the usual appeals, but it is
generally believed that Knapp will
now be electrocuted.
Not since the finding OF the head
less body Of Pearl Bryan on the
Locke farm, back OF Newport, KY,
has such a shock been given the coun-
try at large as that produced by the
confession OF Alfred Knapp, to the
murder OF five persons.
In police annals his like is not to
be found, for while in appearance
mild and harmless as a child, he is,
according to his own assertions, a
criminal that can only be described
as monster.
Devoid of all the finer sensibilities;
cruel to degree beyond the savage;
brutal in the motives that actuated
him, and cunning as the breast OF the
Judge, he stands alone.
Five lives he admits to have shifted
out in his murderous clutch. Three
OF his victims were women and two
were innocent children. In each in
stance, he says, his hands alone were
his implements OF murder, each ofhis
victims having been choked to death.
The story of the bringing tojustice
OF this archfiend whose work OF
slaughter extended over a period Of
nearly 10 years, uninterrupted, reads
like a chapter from fiction.
That Knapp had killed his third
wife in Hamilton was suspected by
Knapp's brother-in law, E. F. King,
the day that Knapp put in an ap-
pearance at his house, inquiriDg il
his wife had been there. King also
suspected that Knapp killed Ida
Gerhard, Mary Eskart and his Sec
ond wife, Jennie Corners, but for
family reasons he reirained from at
tracing the attention Of the police
to his suspicious.
Knapp's plea that he was insane
when. the crimes were committed and
that his diseased mind prompted him
to find qualification in murder, failed
utterly with the majority of the
jurors.
That it made some impression on
the two OF them, however, is evident
from their wish to recommend mercy
for the prisoner.
KNAPP's CONFESSION TO FIvEMURDERs
On June 81, 1894, l killed Emma
Littlmann in a lumber yard on Gest
street in Cincinnati, and on Aug. 1,
1894, l killed Mary Eckert, on Wal.
nut street, opposite the Y. M. c. A.
building in Cincinnati; and on Aug.
I, 1894, killed my wife, Jennie
Knapp, under the canal bridge, at
Liberty street, and threw her in the
canal, in Cincinnati. In July, 1895, l
killed Ida G. Gebhart in Indianapolis.
l killed my wife, Hannah Knapp, on
Dec. %, 1902, at $50 South Fourth
street, in Hamilton, o., and threw
her in the river, out by Lindenwald.
This Is the truth. lmade this state
ment by my own free will and not by
request of any officer or anyone else.
ALFRED A. KNAPP.
Hamilton, O., Feb. 26, 1904.
The confession WIS sworn to In the
presence Of Chief Kummerling, Capt.
Lenehan, Sheriff Bisdori and Mayor
Bosch.