The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-10-08
BOY CONFESSES
TO MURDER
OF GIRL
Sixteen-year-Old Degenerate
Describes How lie Com
mitted Crime.

CAMDEN, Oct, S.-Joseph Wood, age
16 years. who was ARRESTED on suspicion
il connection with the murder of g.
year-old Ethel Nevins. whose body
was found in a thicket not far from her
home in East Camden on Saturday,
has made a confession in which he ad-
mits having killed the girl.
The confession was wrung7from WOOD
after an examination by Prosecutor
Scovel that lasted all last evening
Ethel Nevins disappeared from her
home on Thursday of last week. Her
mother. who is the wife OF Henry
Marx. a trolley conductor, was in the
habit of leaving the child and a
vounge brother in charge of Wood,
while she went on shopping tours. h
little girl was sent on an errand with
her brother on Thursday afternoon,
and failed to return home. The brother,
LEROY, said he had last seen her in a
thicket near a cemetery not far from
her home. The mutilated body of the
child was found not far from where
her brother said he last saw her.
Suspicion pointed to Wood because
Ethel Nevins had told her mother that
she was afraid of him. After his ar
rest Harvey Harrop, grandfather OF
one of the BOYS who found the body,
told the authorities he had seen Wood
in the thicket where the body was
found, and that the boy had a Ratchet,
with which he was chopping stumps.
: The child had been maltreated prior
to the murder.
Details of the confession were given
out today by Prosecutor Scovel The
boy said he had liked Ethel a long time
but that she she always repulsed him
He saw her passing h orchard ano
called her to him, walking With hel
into the lot. The girl hesitated and
ssWoody'' confessed he then told hei
that he only wanted to play. But II
the shelter of the bushes he overpow'
cred her.
The boy says in his confession tina
the girl cried and threatened to tell hei
mother. He Their hit her first on the
hack of the head with a Ratchet he
had with him. The blow must have
killed the little girl, as a big fracture
marks the place where the blow struck
After this he hit her over and over witt
the sharp edge of the Ratchet. He knew
where a big piece of roofing tin that ha'
heen taken off the roof of his fathers shacl
was lying, and this he pulled over the body
putting bricks around the tin to hold !
down.
Young Wood confesses that he took ever.
pains to conceal the murder, even wipinI
M every bit of blood and washing himsel
repeatedly. He ground the Ratchet on
cobblestone until every trace of blood wa
off IT, and then hid 1t where 1t was after
ward found.
This confession came after the detective
and the prosecutor had grilled the boy 70
hours in vain. He persisted in d~eelarin
his innocence so sturdily that for a tim
even the prosecutor was in doubt. But !
the end the boy suddenly broke dowr
tears ran down his face, his voice tremble
and he cried in most piteous tones: "Oh,
did do it; | did do it: poor little Ethel"
Young Wood may be described as a de
generate. He has been stunted in hi
growth by the idle and dissolute life n
has led even as a child. He smokes cigar
cites whenever he can get them. and ha
Mortified the other children of the neigh
horhood by Keeling around in a state 0
lntoxication.
Woods father IS a respectable farmer an
his mother an earnest Methodist, her re
Lance being in prayer. But they could d
nothing with the boy.
Owing to the confession made by tn
boy the other two persons arrested, Harr
y. Marx, stepfather OF the child. and
h~alf-witted chore boy, were released toda,
1t is q question whether in New Jerse
a boy of is may be hanged. His cor
fession Of guilt. unsupported, could not b
taken as evidence in any event.
The father Of the murdered child. Fran
Nevin. arrived yesterday from Lock,
Cayuga County, n. Y, where he owns an
runs a weekly paper called the Couriei
He obtained a divorce six years ago.