The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-06-02
Thrill Killer Is
 Caught at Last
(Continued from Page 1)

 ranks of the French Foreign Legion at Morocco and even into China. Meanwhile the army deserter was always within short distance of New York. living in Boston for sev- eral months immediately after the murder of Panella, and for three and or1e-half years prior to October was a member of the coast guard at the Staten Island station, where he was accepted as an honorable and re- spected married man.
 Knapp was taken to headquarters here and readily admitted the slay- ing of Panella, police said, saying that 1t was committed merely "to ex- perience the power of inflicting death and to enjoy the excitement of being the object of a manhunt." Knapp left the army air station at Mitchell Field, l.. l.. on the day after the murder and never re- turned. A routine investigator fol- lowed and the matter was dropped until 1t was learned that his actions dovetailed with those of Panella's slayer. :. The search which followed ended in a drab. dimly lit street here. far from the wealth and beautiful home
  in Syracuse. Twelve detectives took up the watch on Riderhurst road, where his house was located yes- terday afternoon. As darkness fell they moved into the shadows of the decrepit house where Knapp lived as Allen Kingsbury Phillips"
 with his wife, the former Miss Eleanor Hill of Boston, who mar
 ried him five years ago without knowing his true identity.
 Shortly after midnight bus drew to stop at the curb and Knapp, alighted on his way home from the Public Service corporation of the Oranges, where he was employed as a mechanic. As he turned toward his house, the detectives stepped quietly from phe shadows and seized him before he had a chance to draw the revolver concealed in his cloth ing.
 He denied he was Knapp at first. but changed his story when he was taken to police headquarters. h. spector Ernest Van Wagner was present as a representative of the New York police who have been anxious to question him regarding the "3X" slayings last summer. The homicidal maniac at that time penned notes to police and newspa- pers saying that he had a dozen other names on his list for execu- tion. A study of Knapp and the habits of the self-styled "3x" led pO- lice to speculate that the man who killed Panella and the man who engineered the crimes in Queens county were identical.
 The fa that wrote several notes after each staying, caused po- lice to focus attention on Knapp, who wrote a letter to his father, Will liam w. Knapp of 209 Lincoln Park Drive. Syracuse, after the death of Panella, in which the army deserter admitted he was haunted" by the idea he would find a supreme thrill in taking human life.
 A copy of this letter was sent to Captain H. c. Drayton. the con- fessed slayer's superior officer at Mitchell field. It was then learned that Knapp was the last man seen with Panella. whose body was found partly buried under concrete slabs on the site of an old hospital at Camp Mills, on Hampstead Plains, l.. l.
 Knapp was identified by pictures as the man who sold Panella's cab | to an automobile dealer and re- ceived partial payment. The follow ing day he obtained three-day leave from the airplane base and never returned. He told police that after the murder he went New York for several days and then to Boston where he enlisted in the coast guard. later being transferred to Staten Island, part of New York city, He was honorably discharged last October.
 He was of type kipling de- | scribed as among "the legion of the damned Born to good family, reared in an atmosphere of culture and offered the best in education. he slowly threw away all of the things that held promise for the future for a life that led him slow ly but inevitably downward.
 His associates in the army res called that he enjoyed terming him. self the "blacksheep". He was self -centered, egotistical, contemptu- ous of the men who messea and slept with him at Mitchell Field, they said. When he was in the mood for talking. Knapp's conversation in variably turned to death. At times he talked of suicide. but said he dis liked it because there was no thrill
 "You're dead and that's all there is to It." he is reported by one associate as having said. "There'd be . lot more thrill in killing. You'd