The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-07-22
browns YOUNG
WIFE, BLAMES
LOVE FOR GIRL
Youthful Father of Two
Admits UpSetting Canoe
in Night Trip on Lake.
HELD WITHOUT BAIL
Similarity to American
Tragedy Case Cited
by ProberS.
BvTniicd Press

By United Prcss
WORCESTER. Mass, July %
Newell p Sherman, 26-year- old
Sutton choir singer and scout
master, sobbingly recounted tbs
afternoon how he sang a hymn to
his young wife before drowning her
in New England parallel to the
American Tragedy"
Shortly before Saturday mid
night. authorities charged, Sherman
took mis- 23-year-old wife. Alice, for
a canoe ride on fog-shrouded Lake
Singletary. capsized it, and disre-
garding her frantic pleas for help,
left her struggling in the water
while he swan 200 yards To shore.
Motive for the Staying. police said,
was Shermans infatuation for IL
year-old Esther Magill, a co-Worker
at the Within Machine Co. where
the tall, husky tool maker also was
employed
Morose, his eyes doWncast, and
wringing his hands, Sherman plead
ed not guilty when arraigned on
murder charge before District Judge
Frank E. Riley.
Held without Bail
He was ordered held without bail
for the grand jury.
Back in his cell in Worcester
County Jail, he sobbed out his story.
His clothing was in disarray and his
hair unkempt.
L was singing to my wife in the
canoe" he said. My only religion
is song. I put my whole heart and
soul into it. I was singing a hymn
When 1 Consider the Work of Thy
Hand
When I stopped singing, the
thought to murder her cane back
to my mind. 1 must have been
crazy"
The lake where the tragedy" &C
Cured was the scene of frequent
boat rides of the couple while Sher-
man was counting his wife five years
ago. They had two small children,
Janet May, 2l2, and Dudley, eight
months.
Impossible" to Save Wife
"A guy lives all his life" Sherman
continued, land never does anything
wrong and then has to do some
ming like this. 1t wouldn't have
been so bad, but my father Lewis
Sherman has been cop for Is
years. I'd like to see Janet May,
but I guess To better not. She will
remember this for the rest of her
life"
He told of a purported converse
ton with Miss Magill three weeks
ago.
She said to me. Why don't you
go down three times and come up
twiCe?'
Il won't, but maybe somebody else
will I told her"
Sherman said that it would have
been a physical impoSsibility to
save his wife because of her heavy
clothing.
Confession Is Revealed
Police said Sherman was in
fatuated with a girl who works at
the factory that employs him as a
tool maker. A former football play
er and son of the constable of SUIT
ton, Sherman is 6 feet inches tall
and weighs more than 200 pounds.
The circumstances of Mrs. Sher-
mans death. as related in her hus-
bands confession, reSembled those
in Theodore Dreisers famous novel,
An American Tragedy" and the re-
cent murder of Freda McKechnie
in Pennsylvania for which Bobby"
Edwards was electrocuted.
Sherman confessed authorities
said. that his wife tried to hold him
around the neck, but that he pushed
her away and left her pleading and
struggling vainly in the water.
Sherman was arrested a few hours
after the body was found. At Graf
ton state police barracks, after four
hours questioning. authorities said
he confessed.
Sherman had claimed his wife's
death was accidental.
Choir Singer and ScoutmaSter
Sherman Is a choir singer in a
Sutton church and ScoTtmaSter of
a Boy Scout troop.
William L. Wheeler, %, caretake-
Of a girls camp opposite the scene
of the drowning, was the first per-
son Sherman met when he reached
shore.
Wheeler reported that Sherman
ran up TO him and shouted. My
wife and fell out of the canoe and
she is out there in the water"
Lake Singletary. where the tragedy
occurred. is one of the largest and
most picturesque bodies of water in
central Massachusetts,.