New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-06-04
BOY MURDERED MOTHER.
CONFESSES THE CRIME.
Fourteen ear-Old Nathan Sibbetts
Breaks Dozen at Last.
IBY TELEGRAPH TO THE TRIBuSE.l

Trenton. N. j.. June 3.-After withstanding the
threats and promises of policemen and detectives
for five days I'm which he has been confined in
a CELL fourteen ear-Old Nathan A. Sibbetts
broke down to-day and confessed to the killing
of his mother at Jacobs Creek on May Il He
has been committed without bail TO answer q
charge OF murder a complaint sworn out
by County Detective Frank Munroe. Sibbetts's
confession was made while coroner's jury.
summoned TO meet this afternoon. was inqulring
into the cause of his mothers death. Upon pres
entation of the confession the jury returned a
verdict that the woman. Hannah Sibbetts. came
to her death as the result of being thrown down.
stairs by her son.
Sibbetts's confession, together with the evi-
dence Of witnesses summoned before the jury
has cleared up a mystery that for time par
fed all the efforts of the police to solve. While
suspicion pointed to young Sibbetts from the
outset, he so stoutly maintained his innocence
that the authorities had become almost con-
WINGED that he was not responsible for MS
mothers death While repeated questioning had
wrung from the boy conflicting statements as 10
his movements before and after the body of his
mother was found at the foot of the stairs IN her
little home. 1t was not until the confession was
actually forced from him that they felt at all
convinced that he was the perpetrator OF the
crime. The confession. reported TO the cor
oner's jury. is substantially as follows:
am going TO tell the truth. I've been lying.
l lied because l scared. didn't mean 10
Kill mother. She made me mad. linen MONDAY
night / stayed out all night. l went home about
: o'clock Tuesday morning and went 10 oed IN
my room the second floor l hadn't been IA
bed long when mother came upstairs ana toIo
me TO get up and so 70 work L got out OF peo
and began TO dress. She was mad at me- anu
told ne 10 hurry up or she would throw HE
downstairs l told her that 1 was dressing as
fas I
make me dress faster. She told me again that
she would throw me downstairs II Gld not
hurry. Then 1 got mad and told her that she
could try 1t IL she wanted 10, but would thTo"
her down first. She grabbed me and fought
her. In the Tight we came 10 the head or the
stairs ard l pushed her down. didn
mean 10 kill her. I was mad. that was all, ana
when | showed her l didn't really mean TO
hurt her She fell ali IN a heap at the bottom
of the stairs and then | ran 10 help her. she
was clean dead. I got frightened and dragged
her out on the kitchen floor, and ran upstairs
and got some bedclOthes and put them under
her. Then l put pillow under her head.
watcher her for a while. and when she didn't
move I knew she was dead for sure. / was
scared and didn't know what TO do. got a
feather bed downstairs and covered her with
that I thought that would hide her, and
didn't want anybody to find her. Then I went
out of the house and locked the door. | told
everybody that mother had gone to Philadel-
phia, for / couldn't think Of anything else TO
say. After that l afraid to go into the
house. and slept nights on steam roller that
some men We're building road with near our
house. One night l slept In barn, and two
nights In n cabin with cOOred family. l knew
that mother would be found some day. but
couldn't away. / guess I was too scared TO
do anything but tell lies"
SibbettsS confession TALES In all its essential
parts with the evidence brought out before the
coroner's Jury. The body Of Mrs. Sibbetts. who
was hfty-three years old, was found last Sunday
morning. in a partially decomposed condition,
neishhors having been attracted to the place
by a peculiar odor emanating from the house.