The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1905-09-15

it no longer. Frank.
MinOt, \. d., Sept. l2.-The fore
going note, lying open npan sealed en-
velop, was found by Frank Dyer, who is
living on a claim near Underwood in
this county. Frank" the name sign
ed, was that of harm hand who had
been in Mr.. Byer's employ for six
weeks. He had said to Mr.. Dyer that
his surname was Hall, but" said he,
lit is little matter about my name so
long as l do your work satisfactorily"
The man was always called Frank, and
no effort was made to probe into his an
tecedent history.
The letter found sealed is a plain
Enthusiastically confession of the foul
murder of a beautiful young woman in
Mahoning county, Ohio. 1t reads as
follows:
Aug. 26, l905.-Dear Mr. Dyer: In
the early seventies Charles Sterling a
supposed tramp, was tried for the
murder of Lizzie Grombacker, a beauti
full young woman, residing near
Youngstown in Nahoning county, Ohio,
He was convicted on circumstantial evi
dence and was hanged for the crime in
the county Jail at Youngstown.
Charles Sterling was an innocent man.
| am guilty of the murder of that
young girl and / have paid the penalty
in wretched, haunted life for over
thirty years. Her face, distorted by
the strangling clutches of my then pow
erful hands, made stronger by the power
of brutal beast passion, haunts me as
| write these lines, and for thirty years,
nightly at my bedside, until now | am
a physical and mental wreck, who can
only find relief in death, which will
soon be mine.
At the time / murdered this girl |
was a goung man of twenty. A few
weeks before committing the crime |
removed with my family from Lock-
port, y. Y, to Girard. Ohio, where | be-
lieve my mother still lives, although
| have not heard from her for years.
/ visited Youngstown one week prior to
the murder with the hope of securing
employment. and with other men, Ster-
ling being i'm the crowd. went to Board
man for work two days before the
woman was killed
| was standing in a secreted place
along the roadside when the girl came
along unaccompanied. The devil must
have taken possession of me. | grabbed
her by the arm and pulled her into a
cluster of bushes She refused to yield
to my desires, and clutching her by
the throat, | strangled her to death
while | accomplished my heIlish purpose.
| left the body where it had died and
where it was later found.
Sterling passed the scene of the muir
der in search of me while | was COM
hitting the awful crime. | found him
later and persuaded him to change
shirts with me by offering him 25 cents
in money to boot" He was broke and
accepted the money. There were blood
stains on the shirt of that innocent
girl and they proved one of the strong
circumstances in the chain of evidence
against Sterling | was not seen in the
vicinity of the spot where the murder
was committed Sterling was, and his
arrest followed shortly after the crime
was discovered. l fled, fearing detec-
ton. Knowing him to be innocent l
did not believe they could convict. /
went to WestoppOtamie, a small town
in northern Trumbull county, not far
removed from Youngstown, and secur-
ed work on farm
Crazed by the realization of an in
nocent mans fate, | fled the country
on the night before the execution of
Sterling, and have been a wanderer on
the face of the earth ever since.
watched the papers and read the full
account of the execution. Sterling was
a brave fellow. When his mother. who
resided in Canada, came to visit him
after he was condemned to death. he de-
MED that he was her son and convinced
her at last that she was mistaken.
He left note for his attorney, w. s.
Anderson, as he passed to the scaffold to
pay the penalty for crime of which he
was guiltless. The note was sealed and
Mr.. Anderson was instructed not to
break the seal until after he had learn
ed of the death of the aged woman who
had called at the Jail and insisted that
she was the mother of the condemned
man. When the seal was broken twelve