Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-03-09
PERRY is DEAD.
Suspected Murderer Passes
Away in Cambridge Jail.
Worry Over Charges Prevented Re-
covery from Typhoid Fever.
Said to Have Protested His Innocence
to the End.

Cambridge, Mass, March S.-Georgt
l.. Q. Perry. the negro lad, indicted fol
the murders of Agnes McPhee al
Somerville, and Clara Morton at Wa
verley, died at the Cambridge Jail at II
O'Clock, this morning, of nervous ex-
haustion. Perry survived an attack OF
typhoid fever and death is announced
to have resulted indirectly from worry
which prevented a complete physical
restoration from the weakened physi-
cal condition in which the fever left
him.
Though he was persuaded, Friday,
that his end was near, it is not known
that he made any formal statement,
but it is believed that he protested his
innocence to the last.
Perry was taken i'll, Jan. Is, and pass
ed safely through a run of fever. His
predicament, however proved upon his
mind continuously and although he had
made show of keeping up his spirits
he failed to regain his strength, and
gradually wasted away. A week ago
he was told that he could not live but
he insisted that he would and did not
give up until Friday afternoon. On
that day the house physician called up
on him and told him that he had got to
die. "Oh. no. answered Perry, I'll
get well yet
The physician reported that he saw
little hope for him. Perry then iapsed
into silence for some time and then
turning to the physician asked in Il
hopeless voice, Doctor, have l really
got TO die?"
nyl
are very weak, and l don't see how
you can last much longer
Asked if he desired the presence of a
spiritual adviser, he answered, Il sup
pose I might as well have one'
Asked who he would have, he replied:
Il don't care. anybody will do"
Rev. Robert H. Walker, pastor of the
church of the Ascension of East Cam
bridge, was, summoned and remained
with him some time.
Saturday. Perry's mother was sent
for and she is the last one who saw
him alive besides the sheriff and the
physician.
of assaults on women in Cambridge and
Somerville, in which there were two
deaths. These assaults were committed
with evident intent to rob and were most
DTuldl III claTdcteT, dS the women struck
We're invariably dubbed over the head
The state police were put upon the case
by Gov. Crane and one of the early moves
by them was the arrest on suspicion of a
man we'll known in the Back Bay, Boston,
a Harvard graduate and of good family
He was discharged after a court hearing.
In the meantime the agent of a children's
society in Boston thought he recognized
the handwriting on. the ticket of a. watch
which had been taken from Miss McPhce
and pawned, as that of the negro and on
this clue Perry was arrested.
Rev s. p. w. Drew, who frequently gave
religious consolation to Perry. tonight
said: Il have in my possession a state
ment made by Perry written in his own
handwriting and signed. This is not Il
confessions; it is a statement of how he
came to be implicated in the murder case.
1t says that ne is only implicated in the
case as far as the receiving and the pawn
ing of the watches are concerned. 1t also
names the man who gave him the watches.
tells how long he had known him, how
often he met him and the times and places
of these meetings But | do not intend to
have this statement made public until af-
ter the funeral on Tuesday. Then | shall
give it out"