Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1925-05-26
Kirby's Statement

await his arraignment on the charge of
murder.
Kirby's Statement
kirby's statement to the officers is
substantially as follows:
He denied that he had been the per-
son to fire the shots in the Towns
cottage Tuesday night or that he set
fire to the cottage.
He said that Wednesday morning he
found the body of Aida Hayward in
the woods near the Gray cottage,
which he occupied, and took the body
into the cottage and placed it in the
bed in the upper room where it was
found.
Kirby denied he had killed Miss
Hayward and said that he had taken
the body into the Gray cottage SO as
to protect someone else. On being
questioned as to whom the person was
he was protecting he said he was not
prepared to make any statements
about it at this time.
Put Body IN Cottage
He said that after lie had taken the
body of Miss Hayward into the Gray
cottage he had gone out and Joined
the searching parties which were hunt
ing for the missing girl
He took part in the search of Miss
Hayward's body Thursday afternoon
and stayed in the cottage where he
had placed the body Thursday night.
He stayed at the Y. NJ. c. A. in Au-
gusta Friday night, checked his valise
to Portland, and then went across
country to Oakland.
At Oakland he went to barber shop
and had his mustache shaved, bought
ticket for Boston, and got reserva-
tions on the Pullman train which
leaves Oakland in the late afternoon.
This train went through Winthrop and
was searched at Winthrop by the off,
GERS of the state highway police. They
asked the conductor of the Pullman
car if he had a passenger on board
whom they described.
Kirby recognized the description
they gave the conductor as one of him
self. He said he was seated in the
car where he could hear the officers
talk and saw them as they went
through the train searching for the
man they were looking for
The officers told the Pullman con-
ductor they were looking for a thin
faced man wearing certain clothes and
wearing a black mustache.
Arriving at Newburyport in the
early morning, Kirby got off the train
although he had bought a ticket for
Boston.
The first intimation which Harry
A. Kirby got that he was wanted in
connection with the murder of Miss
Aida Hayward, so he told Sheriff
Henry F. Cummings, was when he
heard a street car conductor at the
upper end of Water street, say so.
AS the train which he had board
ed at Oakland and which went
through Winthrop was being search
ed at Portland, he sat in the chair
car, puzzling over cross word puz-
zle, he further said.
In regard to his story of finding
the body of Aida Hayward in an
other cottage, the Bearce cottage in
the same grove, he said it was on
a couch. He took the body over to
the cottage in which he was living
for protection because he felt it
would be discovered near his and
that he would be implicated. 1t was
Wednesday forenoon that he took
the body over and at that time the
searchers were engaged in the
woods. He told how he covered up
the body in the Gray cottage for
concealment only. She had on shoes
which he removed and her coat he
placed in the other bed room under
a couch hammock piled onto the
bed. He said he didn't intend to
run away and that he was returning
in two or three days. He was plan
ming a week end with his wife and
then was going to return to Lake
Maranacook TO paint the Gray cot
tage. He had reserved board for a
week at the farm of Fred Bearce.
adjoining the grove. The alcohol
which was found in the ice box was
not his. he claimed. He said that he
did not drink although he. did a
number of years ago in New York.