The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1909-09-11
INTENDED TO
KILL FATHER
AND MOTHER
Nerve Failed After He Had
Slain Mother and Then He
Suicided
YOUNG MAN HAD RUINED y
PARENTS BY HIS CONDUCT
Stole Their Money and When Con.
cealment Was No Longer Possible.
He Sought to Hide His Crime by
Murder and Arson.

Pottsville. Pa. Sept. ia lengthy
confession by George Simon in his
own handwriting, written en- route
to Birdsboro, after the failure of an
attempt to kill his father, has Just
come to light. clearing up the crime
of murder of his mother, Mrs. Phoebe
Simon, and the subsequent suicide of
himself.
Young Simon says that he killed his
mother by shooting her through the
head In order to conceal the fact that
he had been systematically robbing
her and his father since he was ten
years old until they, unknown to
themselves, had not cent in the
world.
He further confesses that he in.
tended to kill his father with a
hatchet while he slept and then sat
urate the bed and the house with oil
and conceal his crime by setting the
house aflre.
He entered his fathers room sew
eral nights after the killing of his
mother, but the parent was awakened
and ordered the youth from his room.
He says that when this attempt failed
he determined to leave his father un-
harmed and to instead take his own
life. He went to Birdsboro to see
his sweetheart, Miss Viola Hartranft,
of Pottsville. who was visiting there,
to bid her farewell before shooting
himself.
His nerve evidently failed him and
.lHs returned to Pottsville with the girl.
His confession goes no further than
up to the time he left the train at
Birdsboro.
The message from the dead is a pa
thetic one. pleading for forgiveness
and expressing the opinion that when
my darling learns of this it will kill
her," Part of the. letter, which covers
twelve foolscap pages. is addressed
to his father. He says that his
downfall began when he was 10 years
of age and then he began to steal
pennies from his mothers purse.
This led to bigger thefts until final
ly at the age Of 13 he forged his
large sum of money. This was con-
was exhausted. After that the money
given to him to deposit was kept by
himself instead of being taken to the
bank. He kept the money given to
him by his father to put in a saving
fund and also that of friend of his
fathers which he was supposed to de-
posit monthly for him. When, every
cent the parents owned had been
squandered he decided to hide the
robbery from them by taking their
lives and making their home their
funeral pyre.
"After the killing of my sainted
mother I repented and tried to conse-
crate my soul to God, and it was then
that determined to spare my faith
er's life and take my own"
1t was when police officers found
him at the home of his sweetheart
after the finding of the decomposed,
body of his mother in a spare room
the door of which had been screwed
shut after the body had been covered
with quick lime and disinfectant that
Simon shot himself. He had not been
suspected of the murder Of his mother
up to that time.
He left farewell message to Miss
Hartranft asking her forgiveness for
what he had done and asking her to
pray for him. He said he tried to
turn back, but when he realized the
enormity of his misdoings he was
afraid to do 80, and the temptation
was too great for him to resist.
Il hid the theft of all their money
from my parents. but would to God
they had found 1t out at the start
that might have been stopped be-
fore it led to their utter ruin and
made me kill my dear sainted moth
er."