Evening star., 1925-09-07
KILLER OF GIRL, G,
BOASTS OF CRIME;
SLEW DRIVER ALSO
Former Harvard Student, 18,
Fugitive From Asylum,
Leads Way to Body.
SHOT MAN TO GET CAR
FOR USE IN KIDNAPPING
Harrison Noel, Lawyers Son, Stole
Mary Daily for Ransom.
Grilled % Hours.
BY the Associated Press.

| BY the Associated Press.
MONTCLAIR. y. j.. September T.
Having confessed that he kidnapped
and murdered 6-year-old Mary DAILY.
Harrison Noel, IS. son of a New York
lawyer and formerly college student
and an inmate of an insane asylum,
was hled in Jail today
The motive for the kidnapping was
ransom, but why the girl was killed
is not clear Part of the confession
is withheld by the authorities
Noel confessed that he also shot and
killed Raymond Pierce, a negro taxi
driver, to get an automobile different
from his own and then shot and
wounded another chauffeur who gave
chase after the kidnapping. At first 1t
Quoted the girl.
Boasts of Crime
Grinning and with a tinge of boast
fulness, he stood over the girls body
in a clump of bushes on Preakness
Mountain, Little Falls, n. j., to which
he had led the police. Noel said:
We'll, l put two bullets into her"
The body was lying face upward.
y
breast. There were bullet holes in her
head and neck. Noel said he led the
girl out of the car at 2 o'clock Sat
urday morning. Too frightened to
utter sound, she was left standing
while he backed away and fired many
shots, he said, as if at a fence post
Then he dragged the body into the
underbrush.
Noel escaped June % from the Es-
Sltl,I
brook, where he had been confined at
the request of his parents February
%. He was believed to have suffered
a mental breakdown from overstudy
For a short time he had been a stu
dent at Harvard, but had left by re-
quest OF the University.
Questioned e3 Hours.
The confession came after % hours
of questioning by detectives. Early
yesterday his mother, Anne w. Noel,
was closeted with him in an attempt
to get him to talk
Then David S. DAILY, hardware mer-
chant and father of the slain girl, got
down on his knees and begged the
boy to tell the truth.
Noel said Mary was safe. He Of
fered to return her for $4,000. He
spurned a check. Officers hunted up
the sum in cash. When they re-
turned Noel had changed his mind.
But later he confessed and took the
police to the spot where Mary's body
was hidden.
He said he determined last Tues
day to kidnap a girl for ransom He
noted the residence of Joseph A
Bower, vice president of the New
York Trust Co. On Thursday. leav-
ing his own car on a lonely road, he
called for a taxi. Pierce was driving
him to an address in Little Falls when
Noel shot the chauffeur in the back
of the head and killed him. He drove
a mile, then crammed the body into
a culvert.
Wounds Driver i'm Chase.
The next day, using Pierce's car.
he grabbed the Daily girl from her
playmates in front of the Bower home
and drove off. Overtaken in an auto
chase by John Sandin, the Bower
chauffeur, he shot and wounded
Sandin.
Later he telephoned Mrs. Bower
and asked whether she was interested
in girl with a. pink dress, whom he
offered to return for $4,000. He hung
up when Mrs. Bower asked for his
name.
Suspicion first attached to Noel
when the license number of his aban-
doned automobile was reported. He
was taken from his home to the police
station. The police noticed bloodstains
on his suit. A revolver and car
tridges were found in his room. Then
Pierce's car was found, also blood
stained. Sandin identified Noel as the
man who shot him.
Haunted BY DeIusions.
DR.. H. G. Smith of the Overlook
Asylum said that when brought to
the asylum Noel was suffering from
catatonic dementia praetox, with no
symptoms of homicidal mania. Delu-
sions of persecution haunted him. He
was found in New York in a coma
after his escape from the asylum. Re
turned to the asylum he was found
much improved and was released
Noel worked for time recently as
a. taxicab driver in New York and
lived at a Mills Hotel. He was model
boy. his friends said, and had been O.
brilliant student. He twice won cita-
ton for good deeds while patrol
leader of troop of Boy Scouts at
Montclair. He Is a slim blue-eyed
good looking youth.
His father, Dix w. Noel, is a mem
Der of a New York law firm of stand
ing. His mother, Anne w. Noel, a
magazine writer. collapsed when told
that her son had confessed. Before
Mary's body was found, Mrs. Noel
said:
II know that my son is demented,
and I thank God that he has con.
fessed. 1 only pray that the child is
safely found. If only the little baby
is saved! If only the little baby is
| saved!'