The Washington times., 1920-10-15

|
murder of little Blakeley COu
The handwriting is clear and reEu-
| lar. and although some of the words
are misspelled and punctuation is
bad, the document gives evidence OF
a fair English education.
THE CONFESSION.
| The confession was penned by '"The
Crank" without solitary display OF
emotion. 1t was written in his cell
and then handed to. the State police
1t follows in full:
! Gentlemen: One night in the last
part of May. 1920, / came to Norris
town from Philadelphia with the in
tention of raiding the telephone pay
i stations on both the railroad station
and the elevated station over in
Bridgeport and I missed the last car
going back, so i made up my mind to
walk as far as the city line, because
1 didn't want to stop in Norristown
/ over night.
| "As / got a little way outside Of Nor
ristown, heard a baby crying and
saw a light in a house on my left,
SO l went to look around the house
and found the step ladder. Putting
one on top of the other I could see
a woman with a baby on her lap. sit
! ting down in the baby's room then l
saw a man come in to where the
woman and the baby were from an
other room, then they put the baby
to bed and turning the light out they
went to another room and l went on
my way because i had no intention
1 of kidnapping anyone, but 1t came to
my mind later, that it would be a
good way to make some money, by
stealing that boy then get some ran
! som from his parents.
HOW HE TOOK THE BOY.
/ $50 a few nights later / went to
carry out what I had in my mind.
l took the car in Philadelphia and
when / got a mile or so from the
house 1 got off and walked the rest
of the way. When / got to the place
| where / had seen the boy, there was
| still light in the house, but after
waiting for an hour or so the light
| went out, so / went to a new house
they were building next door and got
q carpenters ladder and coat that
was in the new building and carried
| it to where the boy was, and setting
the ladder against the house i put
| that old coat on me, and pushing the
| screen up and taking the hot water
bottle down on the ground setting
| her on my left as / was facing the
| house.
"Then l went back up and in the
the room and turning the bed cover
/ wrapped the baby up with the coat
and as / picked him up he gave a
little cry, so ] went right out of the
window and after i got out. i heard
some one talking, so / thought the
| h k,y,, had a aneH his
parent and forgetting the bottle,
started to run down the road toward
Philadelphia, and after going for
about half mile I got to a county
road that lead out from the main
road to my right"
80 thinking that maybe they were
| going to follow me, l took that road
and after going for about a quarter
of mile 1 stopped to listen. but
didn't hear no one, so I sit down q
while to look at the baby, and as
turned the coat aside his head fell
back and L found that he was dead
/ killed him by holding him too tight
around my breast a little too long
So not knowing what to do with him
then. I took him down to the river
because / didn't want to put him In
the ground on account that L didn't
| want the dirt and worms 10 touch
him, so 1 took him to the river, and
sitting there by the track with the
boy on my lap until l saw daylight
coming and then not daring to hold
him any longer, I tied him with q
string that 1 found on a wagon in the
stone quarry nearby to piece of rail
that was also in the quarry: then
threw him in the river. After that
| went home and wrote my first letter
to the boys parents in Philadelphia
Then I came back to Norristown &c
learn from the paper or someone that
knew the name and address of the
boys parents so as 1 could mail the
letter.
WAITED FOR PAPERS.
"T had to wait for the paper tc
come out and when he did come on,
went In saloon across the rail
road station and wrote down tho ad
dress and mailed the letter after that
j was writing to the boys parent a,
often as ! could whenever ] was read
ing in the paper that they were
worrying much telling them to not
worry about their child that he was
well and alife just to keep them from
worrying too much and I get some
money.
For killing their child can't
find a name strong enough for my
| self Now I'm not trying to save
myself because II was that killed
the boy, but by pure accident did