Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-09-12
ANOTHER DIED
FOR HIS CRIME
Farm Hand in North Dakota
Leaves Letter Confessing to
Atrocious Murder
TRAMP ARRESTED AND HANGED
Tells Story of the Murder and Says
Every Night He Is Haunted by the
Spirits Of the Dead Girl and the Man
Who Suffered for His crime-com-
mits Suicide.

Minot N. D., Sept. 12.-"when, my
lifeless body is found, notify my moth
er, Mrs. Catherine Herzig. Girard
Ohio. The inclosed letter will reveal
my identity and the awful secret Of
longer" FRANK"
The foregoing note, lying open upon
a sealed envelope, was found by Frank
Byer, who is living on a claim near
Underwood in this county. Frank"
the name signed, was that OF farm
hand, who had been in Mr.. Byer's en-
ploy for six weeks. He had said to
Mr.. Byer that his surname was Hall,
but" said he, 'it Is little matter about
my name SO long as l do your work
satisfactorily The man was called
Frank ana no effort was made to probe
into his ante.edent history
The letter found sealed is a plain,
| unmistakaole confession of the foul
murder of a beautiful young woman
in Mahoning county, Ohio. 1t reads
| as follows:
Te"s Of Girls Murder.
Aug. 26, ..90o.-Dear Mr. Byer. In
tn: early g. .enties Cha.les Sterling, a
supposed ramp, was tried for the
murder Of LIZZIE Grompacker, bea,l-
tiful young woman, residing n .ar
Youngstown, in Mahoning county
Ohio. He was convicted on circum-
| stantial evidence and was hanged for
crime in the county Jail at Youngs-
town.
Charles Sterling was an innocent
man.
l am guilty of the murder Of that
young woman, and I have paid the
penalty in wretched, haunted life for
over thirty years. Her face. distorted
by the strangling clutches Of my then
powerful hands, made stronger by the
power of brutal beast passion, haunts
me as I write these lines, and for
thirty years, nightly at my bedside,
until now I am a physical and mental
wreck, who can only find relief in
death, which will soon be mine.
At the time I murdered this girl I
was a young man of 20. A few weeks
before committing the crime I remov-
ed with my family from Lockport, N.
Y, to Girard, Ohio, where believe my
mother still lives, altho I have not
heard from her for years. visited
Youngstown one week prior to the
murder with the hope of securing en-
ployment, and with other men, Ster-
ling being in the crowd, went to
Rna r1noop for fu,o
the woman was killed
Involves Another Man.
1t was standing in a secreted place
along the roadside when the girl came
along unaccompanied. The devil must
have taken possession of me- I grab
bed 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, I strangled her to death
while accomplished my hellish pur-
pose. left the body where it had died
and where it was later found.
Sterling passed the scene of the mur-
der in search of me while was COM
mitting 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. I 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. I fed,
fearing detection. Knowing him to be
innocent I did not believe they could
convict. I went to Wesoppotamie,
small town in northern Trumbull coun-
ty, not far removed from Youngstown,
and secured work on farm.
Crazed by the realization Of an in
nocent mans fate. fled the country on
the night before the execution of Ster-
ling and have beensa wanderer on the
face Of the earth ever since. l watched
the papers and read the full account
of the execution. Sterling was brave
fellow. When his mother, who resided
in Canada, came to visit him after he
was condemned to death, he denied
that he was her son and convinced her
at last that she was mistaken.
Why He Denied His Mother.
He left note for his attorney, w.
S. Anderson, as he passed to the scaf-
fold to pay the penalty for a crime
of which he was guiltless. The note
was sealed and Mr.. Anderson was in
structed not to break the seal until af-
fer he had learned 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 years later and af-
ter the death of the old lady, it was
found that Sterling had denied his own
mother at the time of his greatest trial
so that she might never feel the dis
grace and go to her grave believing
that her son had died a convicted muir
derer.
To me that was piece of heroism
uneoualed in the annals of the world
I found this chapter in tragedy which
! alone was responsible for In an Old