The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-07-17

He Confessed to the Brutal Murder Of
Little Ida Gebhardt.

Alfred A. Knapp, the self-confessed MUIR
derer now under death sentence in Ham,
ilton, O.. was arrested in Indianapolis on
the night Of Feb "a by Captain Kruger and
Bicyclemen Trimpe and Lowe, of the city
police department, and a confession that
he committed the crime for which he is
now to be hanged was secured from him
by Captain Kruger before 6 o'clock on the
following morning, when he was taken to
Hamilton, O., by Thomas Lenahan, a po-
liceman of that city, who was here await
ing the mans arrest.
Before being placed on trial in the court
at Hamilton, O.. Knapp confessed to five
different murders, one of which was the
killing of little Ida Gebhardt, four years
old, whom he strangled to death in this
city in July, 1896.
The confession of the murderer cleared
up one of the most brutal crimes in the
history of Marion county. Three murders,
which for a number of years had mystifieS
the police of Cincinnati, as we'll as one in
Hamilton, which baffied all the efforts of
the police OF that city, were accounted for
by the stranger
According to the confessions of Knapp
he is accountable for the death of Nav
Eckert who was murdered in Cincinnati
in August. 1894; Jennie Connors Knapp
strangled and thrown into the canal at
Liberty street, Cincinnati, in August 1894:
Emma Littleton. strangled in a lumber
yard in Cincinnati in June, 1894; Ida Geb-
hardt, age four years, strangled to death
in Indianapolis in July, 1895, and Hannah
Goddard Knapp, strangled to death in
Hamilton, o., in December 1902.
The murder of Hannah Goddard Knapp in
Hamilton is the one for which Knapp is
TO suffer the death penalty and 1t was
regarding this murder that his confessions
to Captain Kruger, OF the city police de-
partment, related.
Gebhardt while in the Hamilton Jail and
related the details OF the crime; how he
took the child to a barn in the rear of
River avenue, leading her TO believe that
his only desire was to shelter her from a
heavy rainstorm which was raging at the
time and there strangled her to death.
mutilating the body with Ratchet and
placing it In a tool box, which was standing
In a corner, before leaving the premises.
He stated that he loved to kill people and
said he enjoyed seeing the faces of his
victims While they were gasping for
breath.
when the body of the Gebhardt child
was found in the barn two weeks after
the crime had been committed, Knapp was
one of the first on the scene and loudly
denounced the murderer, and until ne con-
fessed TO the crime he was never suspected.
Knapp came TO Indianapolis a few weeks
after the murder OF his wife, Hannah God
dard, and lived In the basement of 620 In
diana avenue with his parents until they
moved TO Cincinnati about a month later.
He then married Anna Gamble, an adopted
daughter OF George Owens. and moved into
the apartments occupied by them, which
were in the basement OF the building In
which he had been living with his parents
He had been living with the Gamble woman
for about three weeks when he was placed
under arrest and taken to Hamilton o., to
answer the charge of numbering Hannah
Goddard in that city in 1902
Mrs Knapp. who by her husbands arrest
probably escaped the fate of the women
who had before married the stranger. still
lives in this city with her father. and when
apprised of the sentence which had been
passed on her husband yesterday stated
that she would go 10 Hamilton 10 see him
before he died If she had TO walk She SAYS
Knapp always treated her well with the
exception of one occasion. when she was
awakened by his hand clutching her throat
She claims that he was asleep at the tirae
and said that she never feared him. and
did not believe he would have killed her,