Milford chronicle., 1911-01-20
TELLS STORY OF
POISONING SON
ROtheT Adds Details TO Her
Former Confession.
GAVE THIRSTY BOY ACID
Mrs. Melber Says She Fed Him choeo-
late Until He Asked For Water, and
Then Gave Him Poison to Drink.

Mrs. Melber Says She Fed Him choco-
late Until He Asked For Water, and
Then Gave Him Poison to Drink.
The funeral of fve-yearold George
mother. Mrs. Edith Melber, in a swamp
near Albany. n. Y, took place from
the residence of his grandparents in
| Schenectady.
! The confession which Mrs. Melber
made was confirmed and added to in
minor details in her semi-hysterical
| conversation with Detective Reed who
brought her from Rochester to Al
bany.
A ruse of the Albany police disap-
pointed several thousand persons who
crowded the Union station and the
streets outside TO catch a glimpse Of
the woman on her arrival They had
the express stopped at West Albany,
three miles from the center Of the
city and Mrs Melber and the detec-
tives who brought her from Rochester
got out there Thus when Mrs. Melber
reached police headquarters in an au-
tOmobile the crowd there was COM
paratvely small.
Though pale and trembling the wO-
man maintained her composure until /
she got inside her cell, and then she I
tainted It was several minutes be- /
fore she recovered sufficiently to be /
arraigned before the coroner VINO has /
charge Of the case at present
The police are investigating a story
that Mrs. Melber intended to marry a
young Schenectady man as a possible
motive for the crime In answer to
her plea that she was unable to give
the boy proper care because she had
no money to keep him in an nstitu-
tiOn. they present the declaration OF
the relatives Of the child's dead father
These say that since the fathers death
they have made several efforts to have
the boy placed in their care, but that
the mother would not consent. The
reason Mrs. Melber gave for this re-
fusal was that her husbands relatives
declined TO take the child unless she
would agree to resign all claims on
him.
In her confession to the police after
her hysterical outburst on being for
mally charged with the murder, when
she first denied. then admitted the
crime, Mrs Melber gave as an eX-
planation that she could not place the
boy in any institution because she
could not pay for his support there
She had been told to remove him from
the Childrens home at Schenectady,
since she was failing to contribute any
thing to his maintenance.
They told me" she said, that
might take him to the Albany home.
But there was no one there but a girl.
and she said ia have to get permission |
)f the officers
Mrs Melber candidly admitted that d
she told the Rochester police she had
planned the murder of her boy, that
she brought him from Schenectady to
bought him a bag Of choco-
ates and then got 10 cents worth Of
acid and put the bottle in her !
skirt pocket q
The boy slept with her that night. o
md on the following day she took him q
o the country. fed him with the choco- ?
ates. and upon reaching the lonely &
wamp on the Banker farm on the
turnpike, gave the lad
he carbolic acid when he askei for
water p
Mrs. Melber said that she forced the L
Ottle to the child's mouth, and it was II
uring his struggles to get away from d
he fluid that the boys face and hands u
1ere burned. Then Mrs Melber told u
Ow she knelt down. kissed the dying
oy. waited until life was extinct and
aid the body amid the bushes in the
wamp. pl
Dl