The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1911-11-22
LAYS ALL BARE
Tells ef His D;uble Life, His Many
Rsbbaries and 0ther Grimes.
ENDING With crime

Escaped Suspicion of Thirteen Thefts,
but on Unlucky Fourteenth Lost
Locket That Led to Detection and
OF Fifteenth Shot and Killed
Young Woman.
The confession Of Bertram Geger
Spencer, on trial for the murder Of
Miss Martha B. Blackstone at Spring
field, Mass, as made to representa-
tives of the State Detective Bureau
and municipal police shortly follow
ing his arrest, is one of the queer
est Of documents and tells all about
a series of crimes committed at
Springfield by him, while holding
responsible position in business
house of that city as shipping clerA,
and looked upon by all as an honest,
industrious citizen.
No fiction can equal this confes-
sion-equal the contradictory phases
Of character displayed in man who
could invade home to loot it, who
could shoot down defenseless women
and, on the other hand, could polite
ly listen to frightened, faintine Wo-
mans request for glass Of water
and fetch it to her, or could sympa-
theticaliy consider a mothers plea
on Christmas Eve that the gifts she
had to place in the little ones stock
ings and on the family hearth should
not be stolen.
Yet in this confession is also the
raise into madness the anger Of nor
NAL men-confessions that he not
only robbed women but that he bound
and gagged them and showed an
other phase Of his despicable char
acter.
When the locket, lost during an
attempted burglary six months be-
fore, had been traced to him and the
detectives went to the place where
he worked as shipping clerk and told
him he was under arrest as suspect
in the murder of Miss Martha Black
stone, they said that be had first
demanded:
els this joker"
''It is too serious a matter for US
to come here and joke about" one
detective said.
Spencer had called to his employ
Ell, MT. Handy:
''Why, Mr.. Handy, what do you
think? These men have come to ar
rest me for the murder of Miss Black
stone up there in Round Hill. What
do you think of that?"
His employer had reassured him to
the extent Of saying that he had bet
ter 80 with the officers, with the as
surance that If he were innocent
everything would come out all right.
"All right" be answered, then I'll
CO."
At midnight on the day Of his ar
rest he was in a cell; the many arti-
cles found in his house had been
identified as stolen things; the re-
volver and mask and searchlight Ian
tern and belt and holster had been
uncovered there.
The testimony is that Spencer
called to State Detective Flynn,
whom he saw in the corridor, ana
asked:
SIS it true that this drunken fool
over there in that cell has been hol-
lering all night; that Mrs. Dow and
one of her daughters has identified
me as the man who murdered Miss
Blackstone?"
This drunken man" was a police
ruse.
That's something l can't discuss
with you," said Flynn.
Spencer already knew that Mrs.
Dow and her uninjured daughter,
Miss Lucy Dow, had identified a bead
led belt and a pearl brooch found at
his home as articles stolen from them
on the night Of the murder.
1t was two Gays later, he said to
the detectives, that he desired to tell
everything. They warned him they
were policemen and would tell what
he told them to the courts. He said:
Il don't care. I want to tell you
Verbatim extracts from his confes-
sion will perhaps prove the most in
reresting. He tells, for instance, OF
entering house by window and
discovering a man and woman talk
ing. From their talk he gathered
that the man would son retire, so he
rolled under the bed in a back room
and waited
The man went upstairs. Then
this lady came in and locked the
doors and went to bed. / must have
stayed there an hour or two waiting
for her to go to sleep and every time
that I would make the least move to
cone out I could, hear her kind of
sigh
When got up to the edge Of the
bed she rose up and screamed. Then
her position changed from sitting
TO lying position. I demanded mon
ev and jewelry. While was talking
10 her she pulled OF some rings and
dropped them into the bed, and saw
her ana said: What did you do?
You dropped something She said:
No. didn't l asked her to move
over TO cne side an3 she did, and l
saw them. I asked her if she had
any money. She said little. She
gave me So
She asked me for drink OF wat
er and I got her drink. She asked
ne which door I wanted 10 go out
and I said: The back door She
went on ahead Of me and unlocked