Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-05-18
OWNS UP ID MURDER
Farmland Confesses Killing of
 Two Women and Man.
PUT THROUGH THIRD DEGREE
For Eighteen Hours Boy strussIss Against Admission of Guilt - Slew. Employers Wife, Then Her Husband and Finally Servant.

Against Admission or 1utit - SioWs
 Employers Wife, Then Her Husband
 and Finally Servant.
 New York. May 1S.-Frank Zastera. the boyish farmland who raised the alarm about the triple murder at Wick atunk. N. J., confessed that 1t was he who shot and killed William D. Shep- herd, Mrs. Josephine Shepherd and their young employee, Jennie Bendy. leaving the Shepherds young baby the only living person in the house.
 While armed posses galloped and tramped every road md wood patch in Monmouth county looking for another foreigner suspected of the crime the police for eighteen straight hours put Zastera through all the terrors of the dread third degree" only to be baffied by his iron nerve and plausible stories.
 At the end of their resources Prose cutor Stokes and hls assistants forced him as final test to don the blood stained, shot torn vest taken from Shepherds body. They made him place his hand upon that part of it above the heart.
 Now swear that you are innocent!' they commanded.
 Admits Killing All Three.
 The boy broke down and sobbed:
 T did it. I did it! killed all threei Now let me alone, and I'll tell allv'
 It was partly weak mind, partly fear, that impelled him to take the three lives, he explained. Encounter ing Mrs. Shepherd coming downstairs scantly clad for milk for her baby, he addressed her in a manner she resent ed. She screamed to her husband for help. Panic seized Zastera as he heard the stalwart farmer. who was a rough rider in the Spanish-American war, coming to the rescue. A Winchester re- beating shotgun containing seven or eight cartridges was standing handily in corner.
 Grabbing the weapon. the boy chased the frightened woman until he was close enough to strike her with the bar rel. Then he fired three shots into her. Shepherd must have seen the flash of the last shot. He was halfway down the stairs, at the bottom of which his wife lay. when Zastera elevated the gun and fired two shots into him.,
 Afraid Servant Would Tell.
 The pretty Bendy girl had also re scented Zastera's advances the night be- fore For this reason and likewise be- cause he knew she would tell on him the young farmland then turned the weapon on her, felling her as she was running through door to get away.
 q don't know why did it." Zastera told the officials who put him through his inquisitlon. "I just felt like 1t all of sudden. My mind is weak. I've had doctor caring for mo. It just came tc mo to do it, and couldn't stop with one.
 T couldn't sleep the night before somehow. MT. and Mrs. Shepherd and Jennie and myself were up pretty late, playing the photograph in the dining room. When I got to bed l couldn't any more than doze. I got awake a little after o'clock and looked out the window. went back to sleep again and awoke at 4:30.
 At that time I thought I heard . noise in the yard. got up and put on all my clothes except an outside shirt On my way to the yard I looked and saw that the repeating gun was In the corner where Shepherd told me would find it in case of trouble. didn't find anybody in the yard, 90 went back to bed again for about hali an hour. then came down and milked the cows.
 'I went back to the house and began to examine the gun. 1 picked 1t up and aimed it at different things. Then I heard step, and I hid in the parloi near the door Mrs. Shepherd had ts pass 1t as she came downstairs. She was in her nightgown, getting milk for the baby.
 "I waited till she came back from the kitchen; then spoke to her. When she screamed fired, just as she got to the first step She went down, but sent two more shots into her. Mir Shepherd kind of leaned over the rail ings and looked down. I fired at him and hit him. He sort of slid down the stairs. Before he reached the bottom I gave him another shot, and he fell across his wife.
 "Then heard a noise outside in the kitchen. I ran out and saw Jennie, the servant, running away from me. I fired only once at her. but she feil through the door and didn't move. Then I took Shepherds wallet from his hip pocket and took the money out of it. I put the wallet back and hid the money in the yard. I don't know where now. and forgot how much fl was"
 Zastera Is far from the typical farm Iaborer. He is an artist. a violinist. . worker in typography on leather. His home Is in this city at 347 East Seven ty-second street. where In winter he lived with his respectable. comfortably situated family. He earned a good lIv. ing by designing and decorating ex. pensive purses At night he attended art schools. having been q pupil at the Cooper Union and the National Acade my of Design among others.
 Eastern Is only q few months n@ss than twenty-one years old He wss born in Bohemia. but has been in this country since he was six. His mind aIwars has been sIIghtIT teuchAk