The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-03-11
RUSSELL NOBLE
 WILL NOT MAKE ANNUAL VISIT
Model Youth of Haverhill Was Won't to Visit His Fathers Grave Each Year-ShadOw of Grave HOvers Over Himself
BY ALBERT R. MAlNk,S United Press StaGH Correspondent

(tnlteu GfeSS Stau SOTreSpOnuchJ
 Haverhill, Mass, March 11.-U UP) Each year on this date, Russell Burns Noble, IF. has gone to Hill dale cemetery to put flowers on the grave of his father. who died eight years ago to-day.
 There will be no pilgrimage, no flowers. on this anniversary. For Young Noble. Sunday school teacher. church worker, honor student. and until 10 days ago considered Haver- hills model boy" comes instead to the bar of justice. charged with one of the most atrocious crimes Tn Es- sex county history.
 He is charged with hammering to death Mrs Clara E. C. Ellis, semi millionaire society woman and a member of one of Massa chusetts' oldest families as she lay in bed at her colonial mansion here early in the morning of February 26. The 4O-year old widow died of skull wounds Saturday. and police claim Noble has confessed that he killed her while [. wing to rob her of $16 with which he planned to cover up q dedication in school funds en- trusted to him and to pay for high school graduation photographs.
 While Young Noble. by his re- putedly lurid confession, has con vinced District Attorney Hugh A. Gregg and police of his guilt, his friends-and they are legion-re- main sceptical. They point to his exemplary record in school and in church, to his industry as newsboy to his genial disposition, to the love which he has held for his dead par ents, and raise the question whether such q youth could have committed such a heinous crime
 Throughout the tras.cally ch- :, matic developments of the past fortnight. Russell Noble has re- mained his quiet, imperturable self. When informed in his cell at the county jail in Lawrence that the victim of the attack had died he politely expressed his regrets. But the shadow of the electric chair, to which he automatically would be committed if convicted. has failed to darken his spirits. , This youthful stoic IS q rather handsome chap. His face is boyishly round. His thick. curly hair is parted on the side, with q high pom padour. His eyes are of deli cate dreamy blue. His mouth Is small and sensitive. Newspapers have called him baby face. During his confinement to the county jail. young Noble has amused himself by reading detective fiction and mystery thrillers, none of whose plots could hardly compare with the weird fabric of circumstances in which he himself is the central figure.
 The overnight transformation of Haverhill's model boy" into the defendant Tn capital case involV- | ing murder committed with claw hammer has stunned the many ac- quaintances of Russell Noble. As an orphan, he had been brought up by a maternal aunt. He was president of the PhiiOmathian society, an honorary organization at l Haverhll high school; teacher in the juvenile division of the First Church of Christ (Consregationa) Sunday school: and an officer of the Young Peoples Friendly society Of that church.
 It was a wrist watch which led t0 the arrest and subsequent reputed confession of Noble. Two days af- ter Mrs Ellis was attacked he brought the watch to police head quarters. explaining that he had found it in the snow near the wo- mans home, which was on his news paper route.
 Russell was questioned at length later his older brother Charles was examined. and finally District-Attor. ney Gregg announced that Haver' hill's model boy had made and signed q complete confession. The wrist watch had been identified as that of Mrs Ellis, stolen from hei home at the time she was fatally assa ulted.
 | An odd feature of the case Is thai 1.-the house where Mrs Ellis was slain the hospital where she battled fir vain for life. the cemetery where sht was buried, and the courthouse
 where her alleged slayer will stand trial, are all located within sight of each other.