Free trader-journal. (Ottawa, Ill.) 1916-1920, 1919-10-17
F|TzGER RAID HUNG
FOR Staying LITTLE
JANET WILKINSON
CHICAGO MORON PAYS SUPREME
SACRIFICE FOR CRIME WHICH
STIRRED CONTiNENT-H HANG.
ING AT 9 O'CLOCK TO-DAY.
CBy the Associated Prcss1

Chicago. oct Thomas Fit2ger
aid, confessed slayer of little Janer
Wilkinson, today paid the supreme
penalty for his crime shortly after {
! o'clock, when his body was dropped
! through the trap door OF the gallows
Of the Cook County Jail. A few min
Ites after the hanging the body was
/ cut down and uoctors pronounced
| Fitzgerald dead,
The crime to which Thomas Fit.
gerald confessed and for which he
was sentenced TO he hanged was one
OF the most revolving in the criminal
annals of this city and reused the
public ire TO such an extent that the
police feared attempts to lynch the
criminal after his confession had been
given out
Fitzgerald, employed as night
Waterman at highly reputable resi-.
Dental hotel, lived in an apartment
house nearby. He was arrested in
connection with the Disappearance of
s year old Janet Wilkinson whose
Suspicion was directed against him
chiefly because the little girl had told
her parents a story Of mistreatment
by him after having been called into
his rooms last December
After five days of gruelling at the
hands of the police the prisoner con
fessed he had strangled the girl July
-, the day she failed to return home
and had hidden the body under a pile
of coal in the building. He accom-
panied the police to the scene and the
body was recovered. An angry. men
acing crowd about the building caus-
ed the police to hurry the prisoner
under strong guard back to his
cell
His story was that he was sitting
at the window OF his room the even.
ing Of the murder, his wife being in
Michigan when he saw little Janet |
passing in the street He called to
Ter asking If she wanted some candy |
md drew her in through the window. /
Ihe child was frightened and started .
o scream he said. adding:
Before | knew what ! was doing
had my hands about her neck and
adj strangled her. / must be what
hey say | am, a degenerate"
The confession was obtained after
he police had exhausted every eff
prt to solve the mystery of the child's
isappearance. They dug into the
Dal piles of the hotel. sifted the
shes. searched the Fitzgerald home
nd dragged Lake Michigan for
Tile opposite the neigh borhood as
ell as using every effort TO obtain a
,nfession from the prisoner.
Fitzgerald was 80 years old and
as termed by DR. j Whitney Hall, {
the county lunaCy commission,
'schosexual case" but not neces, Y
rilv insane. The newspapers and !
her criminolOgistS referred TO him n
a moron and there was some
citation at the time of his con, Y
ssion for state legislation dealing
It'll the moron problem which was y
id to greater menace than gen
ally realized. When he finally
oke down under police examination,
tzgerald poured out torrent of
lf-condemnation and never attempt.
to excuse his crime, saying merely
at he felt better after he had con.
ssed
At the trial. the attorney appoint. :.
to defend Fitzgerald entered a plea
not guilty and pleaded for SEN
nee of life Imprisonment on the :
ound that the defendant was II
oral degenerate. But after some \
stimony had been entered, includ. D
< that of the mother of the little =
ri, the plea was changed to one Of {
lily and Judge Robert f. Grove,
10 had previously announced that
oh a plea would not prevent intiiC {
N OF the extreme penalty If the
idenCe warranted sentenced the
isoner to r. hanged Before sen
nee was passed Fitzgerald was ask
il he had anything to say and re-
ed that he was sorry for what he
d done and asked forgiveness Of
tie Janets parents, and expressed
. hope that God would forgive him