The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-02-20
YOUNG MANIAC
CALMLY Tells
| OF 8 MURDERS
COnfeSSeS Poison Sayings
After Capture by
Detroit Police.
HELD FOR N. Y. OFFICERS
BIameS Killing Impulse
as Motive for Brutal
Crimes. .
Unit,dPrcss

Bb THit,d Press
DETROIT, Feb. 2O.-James Baker,
regarded by police as one of the
most dangerous homicide maniacs
the country has harbored in years,
today sat N a cell and calmly re-
counted how he killed eight men
in different parts Of the world.
IT killed them to watch the eff
fects Of the poison I administered, -
Baker who is but IS, told officers.
at wasn't that 1 wanted to kill
any one in particular. ANY one
who was around when the impulse
seized me would do"
Baker, arrested on a farm near
Pennington. Mich. will be turned
over to New York police for the
brutal murder of Henry Cav, an
aged night Waterman at the Gug-
genheim laboratories. Baker adj
mitted he gave Cav poison in 1928,
from which Cav died.
Never Used Gun
A 17-year-old girl, with Baker
when he was apprehended, threat
sned the lives of officers. She was
not arrested and her name was
withheld. Baker said he had been
living on the farm since he left New
York after the Cav murder, which
was his last.
A revolver, notched eight times,
was found on Baker when he was
arrested.
Il never used the gun in a muir
der" he said. ut was just for an
occasional robbery. I always used
poison"
Baker, whose home is in Warren,
O., said he left home when he was
10, learned the Steam1tter's trade,
and then shipped on an ocean
freighter.
I always was interested In poi
sOning and always carried some with
me-" Baker told officers. THE i'm
pulse to kill never came until one
day was sitting in a sailors res
tauTant in Houston. Next to me
sat q man drinking coffee. Sud-
denly, I felt I wanted to see him
die. When he turned his head I
dropped some poison in his coffee.
He drank and almost Immediately
dropped dead. Later I learned his
name was Honneycutt.
Poisoned Ship Crew
after that I poisoned a sailor at
Hamburg, Germany, and a Hindu at
Bombay. I also killed a man with
poison at Iloilo, in the Philippines.
Then, on a Standard Oil tanker out
of Bayonne, N. P, 1 put poison in
the coffee OF the crew. Twelve were
made i'll and three died.
I was employed as a chemists as
siStant in the Guggenheim labora-
tories, and I hoped to be sent to
South America for the company,
and when I wasn't quit.
Then one night I came back to
the place. There was a new watch
man on duty, but he let me in. IN
this case wanted to test the poison
-cyanide-aS well as see a man die.
I had exposed the stuff and I wanted
to see what that would do to it.. I
overpOwered the man and forced
him to drink two cups of coffee into
which I had put the poison It
didn't seem to affect him, so 1 placed
some on the muzzle of my revolver
and forced the gun down his throat.
Then he lost consciousness.
AS I started to leave two truck
drivers arrived. I recognized them,
let them in and then held them up.
I bound them and intended to kill
them, but one said he had wife
and some small children, SO took
their money and left"
Police said they we're tipped by
an informer that Baker was wanted
in New York, and last week when
two New York detectives were in
Detroit they described him. Wednes-
day they received a wire asking his
arrest for Gaw's murder.
n0r,xF Dan0nR