The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-11-02
4 Have Made My Peace
With God,' Girl Says
Before Death.
MYSTERY is DEEPENED
Officers Previously Had
Swung to Belief in Story
of Love Test.
BY JACK r. HERTZ


LAKE BLUFF, ILL.,, Nov. 2.-El-
frieda Knaak, 29-year-old Sunday
school teacher, died in a hospital
here today, and with her last words
increased the mystery surrounding
the manner in which she received
the burns in the police station fur
mace that caused her death.
Miss Knaak died at 1855 a. m. and
her last words, uttered a few hours
before were:
II wonder if they did it and why.
didn't do it. didn't do it. They
did it,"
Il have made my peace with God,"
she had sighed a few moments be-
fore. She died with smile on her
parched, burned lips, maintaining
the air of peace she had kept during
the hours she was in the hospital.
Makes Peace With God
Her body was found Tuesday
morning in the basement of the
city hall, her limbs burned almost
to the bone and her face scared
with fire.
On regaining consciousness she
declared that she had tortured her
self in the furnace of the building
to purify her soul of a love for
Charles w. Hitchcock, handsome
night policeman and her instructor
in eleocution.
Last night Miss Knaak started
sinking and it became apparent she
could not live through the night.
Shortly before midnight, she
gasped out that she had made her
peace with God. Then she moaned.
II wonder. wonder. I wonder"
Her nurse, Miss Ethel Keaney,
asked her want she was wondering.
II wonder if they did it," Miss
Knaak replied. And 1 wonder why
they did it."
Then she turned her head and
Sobbed out:
"I didn't do it. I didn't do it.
They did it,"
Family Charges Murder
Because of this, Miss Knaak's
family are convinced that she did
not inflict the burns on herself, but
that some one attempted to murder
her.
Police almost had turned to the
girls original story, that she had
tortured herself in the fire in the
belief she would purge her soul of
a hopeless love. But Miss Knaak's
dying words probably will send
them searching again for clews in
the case.
Alvin Knaak, one of the woman'S
five brothers, Thursday expressed u
half belief that his sister had sought
to keep a death pact with some one.
He said she murmured something
about pact and added, "one of us
did not go through with it,"
Now, he said, he and the other
members of the family believe size
must have been placed in the fur.
mace by someone else.
Alvin said he was the only mem.
ber of the family who could get
Elfrieda to talk. He said she told
him that Tuesday night she went
to the police station to see Hich-
cock. There she learned he was
home in bed, suffering from a brok.
en- leg.
Frank Threw Me Over
She returned to the electric line,
he said, but found that she had just
missed car. Then, Alvin said she
told him she resumed to the police
station and entered the basement
through an outside door.
"She said she could not remem-
ber what happened from the on"
Alvin said.
In inquest will be held at p. m.
today.
During the time Miss Knaak was
in the hospital, she had maintained
her story stanchly.
Once she gasped, they did it,"
but then hastened to say she alone
was responsible.
Again she cried Frank threw me
over" Police could not learn who
Frank" was.