Norwich bulletin., 1913-10-07
SpenCer's Yarn
 Is DisbeIieved
BUT TWO MURDERS CAN BE LAID
 AT HIS DOOR.
DRUG INSPIRED DREAM
Police Believe His Imagination Is
 Stimulated by Narcotics-LittIe
 Doubt That He Killed Mrs. Rexroat-

Chicago. Oct. 6.-Of the nineteen murders Henry Spencer, slayer of Mrs. Mildred Allison Rexroat, sWOre he had committed, the police tonight, after Tn vestigating his alleged crimes in vari- ous cities, were able to fix upon him only one murder, or possibly two.
 Captain Halpin. chief of the detec- tive bureau, announced his conviction that Spencer iL- giving his long, cir cumstantial confession of fendish crime was a consummate falsifier.
 imagination Stimulated by Drugs.
 Four of the murders he says he com mitted were perpetrated while Spencer was in the Illinois state penitentiary at Joliet. Of twelve of the alleged murders the police in this and other cities have no record. In one case described by Spencer police records show that a body was recovered, but that the detectives have at yet estab- lished no connection between Spencer and the crime.
 Except for possibly two murders, Spencer's weird story of killing peo- pie by hammering in their skulls and sinking thei1 bodies in lakes seem pure fabrication" said Captain Halpin tonight. His imagination, stimulated by drugs, poured out one of the most fantastic tales of murder that has ever come from a man whose mind Is given to dreams of crime.
 Proof in Case of Mrs. Rexroat.
 Captain Halpin declared tonight that he has complete proof that Spencer murdered Mrs. ReXrOat and is almost equally confident that he murdered Mrs Annabel Wight. Mrs. Wight's house was robbed Dec. 4. 1912, and she was so badly beaten that she died in the county hospital July 13, 1913.
 The body of Ida Oliver, recovered from the drainage canal May 29, 1912, A n1- an whom Spencer says he lured along the canal and killed her after robbing her.
 Identified as Mrs. Rexroat's Murderer
 Spencer was in the penitentiary when Policemen Penne1 and Devlne were killed, Aug. II, 1902. He also was in prison in 1906 when Fannie Thompson was killed and when Emmet c. McChesney was killed in September, 1911. McCheSney was slain m the rear of 2600 State street and the murder was at fret thought to correspond to the man who Spencer says he killed under the South Side elevated struc- ture.
 Denials were received today from police authorities in other cities men toned by Spencer that many of the boasted crimes were committed.
 Complete Identification of Spencer as the murderer of Mrs. Rexroat came
 
 least two sections of his confession, referring to the holdups and robberies, were confirmed by visitors to the de- tective headquarters.
 Knows He Will Hana.
 "You have got me dead to rights on the ReXroat murder" Spencer said to- day and I know that 1 shall be hang ed in a couple of months. That is why I want to tell everything else and get 1t out of the way.
 'I have bene in and out of prison since I was a boy" he continued. T have been hun ted and bounded all my life. am sore on the world. My own life does not amount to much and mo- body's life has meant much to me-
 The proceeds of Spencer's crimes have amounted to more than BIO, 900 in the last year. He has spent the money on women
 T killed Mrs. Rexroat because she told me was responsible for her con- dition and how badly, she needed $500. I didn't murder her for the ring. I took it just because it was there."