Speaker 1: Paul Puder got calm Evansville, Indiana, August twenty fourth, nineteen eleven.
Speaker 1: One of the most atrocious murders in the history of
Speaker 1: southern Indiana was committed last night in the home of
Speaker 1: Richard Lee, a laborer in Boonville. Richard Lee, his wife Emma,
Speaker 1: and their sixteen year old son Clarence were brained with
Speaker 1: a weapon believed to be an axe. Their twenty one
Speaker 1: year old son, Willie Lee, says he detected a queer
Speaker 1: odor in the night, as if feathers were burning. He
Speaker 1: found the bed ablaze, according to his story, and was
Speaker 1: horrified to see his father, mother, and brother dead, their
Speaker 1: heads having been crushed with what he believed to be
Speaker 1: an axe. The son notified neighbors, who rushed to the
Speaker 1: home and found the three victims of pools of blood.
Speaker 1: Some of Booneville's citizens doubt the boy's story. A rigid
Speaker 1: investigation is being made. The older son is under arrest.
Speaker 1: True crime Historian presents Yesterday's News tales of classic scandals, scoundrels,
Speaker 1: and scourges told from historic newspapers in the golden age
Speaker 1: of yellow journalism. Episode three hundred and seventy four tells
Speaker 1: the story of an awful family murder in Booneville, Indiana,
Speaker 1: when a lazy young man and without much of a future,
Speaker 1: takes an axe to his parents and brother on the
Speaker 1: eve of his wedding day. What offenses the family committed
Speaker 1: to deserve such a fate seemed to be all in
Speaker 1: the mind of the accused, and it takes a few
Speaker 1: tries to get a story straight. I'm true crime historian
Speaker 1: Richard O. Jones, and for your horror and indignation, I
Speaker 1: give you a bloody family bed. The Triple Confessions of
Speaker 1: Willie Lee, Boonville, Indiana, August twenty fifth, nineteen eleven. The
Speaker 1: general impression here this afternoon is that Willie Lee, held
Speaker 1: as an alleged slayer of his father, mother, and brother,
Speaker 1: has made a complete confession. Sheriff's Scales and Coroner Farley
Speaker 1: were with the prisoner over two hours and came from
Speaker 1: the prison shortly afternoon. They soon returned, however, carrying a
Speaker 1: small roll of blank paper, presumably for taking the confession
Speaker 1: and writing. Another reason given for believing the rumor of
Speaker 1: a confession is that Sheriff Scales this morning arranged to
Speaker 1: allow the boy to attend the funeral of the three victims.
Speaker 1: The sheriff thought the young man might show signs of
Speaker 1: weakening when confronted with the remains of the trio, But
Speaker 1: after coming from the prison the second time, the sheriff
Speaker 1: said he had decided not to take Willie to the funeral.
Speaker 1: Now it is believed the boy has confessed, and the
Speaker 1: buggy engaged was not for the funeral, but to convey
Speaker 1: Lee to a point of safety, as feeling is running
Speaker 1: very high here, especially since the rumors of a confession
Speaker 1: became current. Sheriff Scales told Lee shortly afternoon that the
Speaker 1: residents of Boonville were very indignant that they were talking
Speaker 1: of organizing a mob to hang him. Well, if they do,
Speaker 1: said Lee, they will hang an innocent man. Officers today
Speaker 1: found an undershirt and a pair of drawers hidden under
Speaker 1: a sheet on Willie Lee's bed. The garments were bloodstained.
Speaker 1: Young Lee. It is believed after the killing, if he
Speaker 1: did the killing, concealed the garments there. Sheriff Scales said,
Speaker 1: the clothing is the size to fit young Lee. Scales
Speaker 1: in the corner now have the blood stained garments. The
Speaker 1: officers carefully guarded the newly found evidence and would say
Speaker 1: nothing further than that they had found underwear hidden in
Speaker 1: Young Lee's bed, and that it was covered with bloodstains.
Speaker 1: Missus Jack Eifler, a neighbor of the Lees, said today
Speaker 1: that she saw a man going in the direction of
Speaker 1: the pond, having come from the direction of the Lee
Speaker 1: home early Thursday morning. According to her story, the man
Speaker 1: was carrying a bundle. Missus Eyfer believes that the man
Speaker 1: was Willie Lee, and that the package contained bloody tools
Speaker 1: used in the murder. It was rumored on the streets
Speaker 1: that Young Lee, held as knowing more than he is
Speaker 1: told of the terrible triple tragedy, was wavering and probably
Speaker 1: would make a clean breast of the affair, and when
Speaker 1: taken before the judge of the Circuit Court, he would
Speaker 1: throw himself on the mercy of the court. But Willie
Speaker 1: Lee remains as adamant as he was all day yesterday.
Speaker 1: He vehemently denies knowing who perpetrated the awful deed which
Speaker 1: blotted out the lives of his father, mother and brother
Speaker 1: early Thursday morning. The coroner is still examining witnesses, and
Speaker 1: every conceivable detail that can be unearthed is sought to
Speaker 1: fasten the responsibility on someone. Officers this afternoon are dragging
Speaker 1: a pond near the Lee home, believing they will find
Speaker 1: a pitchfork or other sharp instrument us used in the
Speaker 1: triple murder, as some of the gashes on the bodies
Speaker 1: appeared to have been inflicted by an instrument other than
Speaker 1: the hand acts found in the kitchen. Several neighbors of
Speaker 1: the ill fated family today said Willie Lee and his
Speaker 1: parents had occasional quarrels, which contradicts Lee's story that he
Speaker 1: and his mother, father, and brother seldom allowed harsh words
Speaker 1: to come between them. There are many who believe young
Speaker 1: Lee and his parents quarreled Wednesday afternoon over his approaching marriage,
Speaker 1: and that he left home in a huff, calling on
Speaker 1: his fiancee, Miss Mina Taylor of near Newburgh, whom he
Speaker 1: was to have married last night. It is believed that
Speaker 1: upon his return home, he was scolded for planning to
Speaker 1: marry inasmuch as he had no job and had very
Speaker 1: little money. These same people believed that after the midnight quarrel,
Speaker 1: Lee went to his room, where he waited until his
Speaker 1: parents and brother were fast asleep, and then committed the deed.
Speaker 1: This is merely the position some have taken when queried
Speaker 1: relative to their version of the triple tragedy. Newburgh, Indiana,
Speaker 1: buxhom unsophisticated seventeen year old Mina Taylor, whose love dreams
Speaker 1: were shattered like a baby's broken doll, who today would
Speaker 1: have been the bride of Willie Lee but for the
Speaker 1: brutal massacre of his father, mother, and brother, bears up
Speaker 1: bravely under the ordeal of crushed hope. Though her castles
Speaker 1: have tumbled down about her, and her sweetheart is veritably
Speaker 1: in the shadow of grim death. Mina Taylor, the sweet
Speaker 1: faced country girl, has not prejudged her boy. She has
Speaker 1: called him that since they were engaged. Hers is a
Speaker 1: curious name nature. She wavers like a bird with a
Speaker 1: broken wing, afraid to fly in her own heart and mind.
Speaker 1: She may believe him innocent, but she says, time, the
Speaker 1: revealer of all things, will tell. She has put away
Speaker 1: the things of a bride, and her dreams of a
Speaker 1: year have been covered over with the blightening black charge
Speaker 1: of crime. Though her face mirrors disappointment intensely and her
Speaker 1: eyes have the red, swollen look that come after tears,
Speaker 1: Mina Taylor does not grow hysterical nor wring her hands.
Speaker 1: Hers is a sensible view of the triple tragedy. Calmly,
Speaker 1: she talks of the details, weighing this and that piece
Speaker 1: of evidence against him and discarding it when she SIPs
Speaker 1: it down to her own gauge of guilt. Her friendship
Speaker 1: with Lee has been life long. They were sweethearts when
Speaker 1: she wore her hair down her back and long plates
Speaker 1: and froliced about the school yard in Gingham knee dresses.
Speaker 1: Later they discovered that subtle spark of love between themselves,
Speaker 1: and a year ago last spring, Lee proposed except that
Speaker 1: he did not work regularly, there was nothing against him.
Speaker 1: He did not drink, did not carouse with the boys,
Speaker 1: and she hoped he would work steadily after the marriage.
Speaker 1: Under pressure of persuasion, John Taylor, her father, consented to
Speaker 1: the marriage, although he told Lee that Mina was too
Speaker 1: young to become a bride. The girl has Lee's bank book.
Speaker 1: When he got one hundred and twenty five dollars from
Speaker 1: his mother when the house was sold at Newburgh, he
Speaker 1: deposited one hundred dollars of it. The girl knew he
Speaker 1: had withdrawn thirty five dollars. Since she does not know
Speaker 1: that the account now is very small. The girl's mother
Speaker 1: liked young Lee because she had known him for a
Speaker 1: long time and had heard nothing against his character. The
Speaker 1: boy was to have returned to the Taylor home Thursday morning,
Speaker 1: take the girl to Boonville to pick the furniture, select
Speaker 1: the house in which they were to live, then return
Speaker 1: to the Taylor home for dinner and the marriage ceremony.
Speaker 1: Lee left the girl Wednesday night about nine o'clock, and
Speaker 1: she says he was in good spirits and apparently far
Speaker 1: from a murderous mood. They have not communicated since the tragedy.
Speaker 1: The funeral services for the three victims of the terrible
Speaker 1: murder were held this afternoon. The services were simple. Relatives
Speaker 1: of the dead were here to take charge of the remains.
Speaker 1: Interment was made in the cemetery at Newburgh, where a
Speaker 1: lot had been purchased by the relatives. The sheriff did
Speaker 1: not allow the prison Willie Lee to attend the services,
Speaker 1: although at noon he said he would take the young
Speaker 1: man to give him an opportunity to gaze upon the
Speaker 1: victims for the last time. A great crowd watched the
Speaker 1: removal of the bodies from the city that a threat
Speaker 1: was made against the life of Richard Lee, dead father
Speaker 1: of Willie Lee, eleven years ago when his brother in
Speaker 1: law Ed Blanchett was killed at Newburgh by Bill Ross.
Speaker 1: Was revealed by Willie Lee before the coroner's hearing Thursday afternoon.
Speaker 1: Dan Sutton, brother in law of the dead man, husband
Speaker 1: of the dead woman's sister, is said to have made
Speaker 1: the threat. Willie Lee told Coroner Farley that he heard
Speaker 1: Sutton say that his father, Richard Lee, was the cause
Speaker 1: of the murder of Ed Blanchett, and that Dan Sutton
Speaker 1: would never be satisfied until he got Dick Lee. The
Speaker 1: officers are trying to find out where Dan Sutton was
Speaker 1: the night Dick Lee and all its family but the
Speaker 1: one son, were murdered while they slept. Dan Sutton's wife
Speaker 1: and Missus Lee were sisters, but Dan Sutton and Dick
Speaker 1: Lee had not spoken for eleven years, says Willie Lee,
Speaker 1: the surviving son. Though this may be an important clue,
Speaker 1: the officers are not giving it much consideration. They are
Speaker 1: pinning their efforts to fasten the crime upon the boy.
Speaker 1: Popular opinion holds him to be the most likely murderer.
Speaker 1: So far as the officers know, Dan Sutton never made
Speaker 1: an attempt on the life of his brother in law.
Speaker 1: Willie Lee, howled in connection with the triple murder at Boonville,
Speaker 1: told a straightforward story at the coroner hearing. Quote. I
Speaker 1: came home between ten thirty and eleven o'clock Wednesday night,
Speaker 1: drove the horse to the stable, and went directly home.
Speaker 1: When I went into the house, mother was on a pallet,
Speaker 1: and she rose to a sitting position and asked me
Speaker 1: if I wasn't outlaid. I said not very, and that
Speaker 1: it was just about ten o'clock. She asked me where
Speaker 1: I was going Thursday, and I said I was going
Speaker 1: to get married. She said I was going to stay
Speaker 1: with her, and I laughed. Then I went into my room,
Speaker 1: closed the door, and went to bed. When I woke,
Speaker 1: I was hazy and I was choking. I grabbed my
Speaker 1: trousers in my left hand, stumbled over a chair, struck
Speaker 1: the door still by falling against it, stumbled onto the
Speaker 1: porch and fell against a pillar. I put on my
Speaker 1: trousers out there and went to Lon Nedge's house and
Speaker 1: told him the house was burning, and he came back
Speaker 1: with me. I kicked the front and back doors in
Speaker 1: and he went to get the fire department. I saw
Speaker 1: the wounds on my people's bodies when they were uncovered.
Speaker 1: He was asked, this is your revolver that was found
Speaker 1: in the room. He said it was, but that he
Speaker 1: had given it to his father two weeks ago and
Speaker 1: had not seen it until he picked it up in
Speaker 1: their room. After returning to the house with hedges, he
Speaker 1: carried it into his own room and then placed it
Speaker 1: beside a phonograph. He was asked about an axe. He
Speaker 1: said there was only a hand axe about the house,
Speaker 1: and he had not seen it since he chopped kindling
Speaker 1: a week before and threw it into the coal pile.
Speaker 1: He said he knew his mother carried life insurance for
Speaker 1: members of the family and had seen her pay fifteen
Speaker 1: cents a week on several occasions. He said he didn't
Speaker 1: know where the oil can was kept. He and his
Speaker 1: mother were like children together, he said, and he and
Speaker 1: his father and brother were chums. He added his mother
Speaker 1: gave him money whenever he asked for it. He declared
Speaker 1: that she gave him thirty one dollars within the last
Speaker 1: six weeks, which he had spent foolishly. He had quit
Speaker 1: his last job, he said, because his father told him
Speaker 1: he wasn't making anything of the work. He said there
Speaker 1: was no objection to his marriage, and that his father
Speaker 1: had told him when he was fifteen he could marry
Speaker 1: whenever he wanted to. Ed Schreiber, for whom Richard Lee,
Speaker 1: the dead father worked, testified that one day, when he
Speaker 1: paid Lee nine dollars, the old man remarked that it
Speaker 1: required a good deal of money to get along, as
Speaker 1: he had to contribute liberally to his son, will Schreiber said.
Speaker 1: The aged man remarked, we have one gentleman in our family,
Speaker 1: evidently meaning that Willie didn't work but took life in
Speaker 1: an easy way. Evidence against Willie Lee bloody underclothing found
Speaker 1: in his bed, concealed under a sheet. His revolver was
Speaker 1: found in the room where his father, mother, and brother
Speaker 1: were murdered, taken there perhaps to be used in case
Speaker 1: the axe did not accomplish its purpose. When he went
Speaker 1: to the home of Lawn Hedges and gave the alarm
Speaker 1: of fire, he was fully dressed. He told coroner Farley.
Speaker 1: He had merely grabbed his trousers and put them on
Speaker 1: outside of the house when he was awakened. When Hedges
Speaker 1: returned to the burning house. All the doors were locked.
Speaker 1: Willie Lee says he came out the front door. The
Speaker 1: hatchet with blood and hair on it were found in
Speaker 1: a corner in the kitchen, and a coal oil can
Speaker 1: with the top off was also found there. A wash
Speaker 1: basin is missing and no keys to the house can
Speaker 1: be found. Witnesses say the boy beat his mother and
Speaker 1: demanded money frequently. He did not work for two months
Speaker 1: previous to the murder. He told the corner he had
Speaker 1: one hundred the Newburgh Bank. The cashier today says his
Speaker 1: deposit is something like ten dollars. The marriage between the
Speaker 1: boy and Mina Taylor, which was to have occurred Thursday,
Speaker 1: met the objections of his parents. A witness declares the
Speaker 1: boy said a few days before that he would get
Speaker 1: the money for his marriage or kill the whole family.
Speaker 1: Evidence favoring Willie Lee. Willie Lee bore a good reputation.
Speaker 1: He did not drink or run with evil companions. He
Speaker 1: does not appear to be brutal. He talks frankly and
Speaker 1: explains his conduct before and after the murder. He says
Speaker 1: his father and he were chums, and that he and
Speaker 1: his mother played like children. He stoutly maintains his innocence,
Speaker 1: and although unmoved, shows signs of Greek. He has looked
Speaker 1: upon the dead bodies without portraying any signs of guilt,
Speaker 1: and he told the Sheriff Friday he wanted to view
Speaker 1: the remains and be at the funeral. His clothes show
Speaker 1: no blood marks. Three murders, it is said by criminal
Speaker 1: officers of Evansville, would surely have left some trace of
Speaker 1: blood upon his clothing or body. August twenty sixth, nineteen eleven.
Speaker 1: As non caring, as unperturbed, is iron nerved as he
Speaker 1: ever was. Willie Lee, self confessed murderer, is in the
Speaker 1: Vandenberg County jail. Though his confession to Sheriff Raymond's scales
Speaker 1: has made open the way for the strangling news of him.
Speaker 1: Willie Lee is the same cold peace of humanity. He
Speaker 1: stands the memories of the crime that took away the
Speaker 1: lives of his mother, father, and brother as calmly as
Speaker 1: if they had gone naturally to their death, and not
Speaker 1: struggling before his eyes for their lives which he was
Speaker 1: crushing out by deadly blows from the axe. Willie Lee,
Speaker 1: only twenty one, is a fiend. His demeanor makes other
Speaker 1: crimes and criminals shrink to bare threads of insignificance before him.
Speaker 1: He is the arch criminal of Indiana. For never since
Speaker 1: the Hoosier State unfurled a flag of the Union, never
Speaker 1: since the massacring Indians receded, has a murder so horrible
Speaker 1: been perpetrated in this commonwealth. Willie Lee's mother is dead
Speaker 1: and buried, and he does not show that he had
Speaker 1: any more feeling for than for the bird he might
Speaker 1: bring down with the rifle from a tree. His father
Speaker 1: is cold and death and upon the poor old bones.
Speaker 1: Willie Lee is trying to place the blame for the
Speaker 1: triple murder. His brother is in the tomb, and the
Speaker 1: thought of the years when the two lads romped the
Speaker 1: fields together in the same joy of the barefoot days
Speaker 1: does not seem to break the steel like coldness of
Speaker 1: the young man now held behind the steel bars of
Speaker 1: the Vandenberg County Prison. Willie Lee is not thinking, apparently,
Speaker 1: of how he repaid them for the love they gave him,
Speaker 1: the sacrifices they made, the long vigils they kept when
Speaker 1: he was a frail babe in his cradle. Willie Lee's
Speaker 1: mind does not run to appreciation. His is a vindictive
Speaker 1: mind with a turn for revenge, black fiendish crime, breeding hate.
Speaker 1: Out of his mind does not come the anguishing cry
Speaker 1: of criminal air. It is more, the boasts of a
Speaker 1: wall done deed out of his mouth do not come
Speaker 1: words of regret, nor please to God for forgiveness. Only
Speaker 1: the foul cigarette smoke curls up towards the dingy ceiling
Speaker 1: of his iron cage as a harbinger of unthinkable crimes.
Speaker 1: Out of his eyes. Tears do not flow, but instead
Speaker 1: there comes a penetrating, desperate look of the arch criminal,
Speaker 1: so ominous that it chills the red blood of manhood.
Speaker 1: Now that the deed is done and Willie Lee has confessed,
Speaker 1: it is said that he seldom placed his arms around
Speaker 1: his mother's neck and hugged her with that sheer joy
Speaker 1: of loving babyhood. That he did not often straddle his
Speaker 1: father's knee and pat his cheek with the soft, white,
Speaker 1: childish hand that seemed to speak child love. That he
Speaker 1: never opened his heart in a boyish brotherly love to
Speaker 1: his brother. Lee was another kind of a boy. He
Speaker 1: didn't work, He sought pleasure constantly. He begged his poor
Speaker 1: old father and mother for the dimes and dollars they
Speaker 1: scraped together and saved. A good time was what Willie
Speaker 1: Lee wanted. His life so far was poorly spent. Pleasure
Speaker 1: was his goal. What has been the cost? I got
Speaker 1: home about ten o'clock and my mother was up and
Speaker 1: talked to me and told me she was afraid to
Speaker 1: go back to sleep. I told her I was going
Speaker 1: to bed, and I went to bed. Sometime in the night,
Speaker 1: I heard a noise like someone was walking on the floor.
Speaker 1: I turned over and went to sleep again, and it
Speaker 1: was about four o'clock or a half past four or
Speaker 1: I heard a noise and turned and ran to the door.
Speaker 1: My father met me with the axe and he said,
Speaker 1: you damn, I'm going to kill you too. I grabbed
Speaker 1: the axe and struck him. He staggered back. I ran
Speaker 1: out the door. I saw my mother and brother lying
Speaker 1: on the floor. I didn't go to kill my father,
Speaker 1: but was scared and didn't know what I was doing.
Speaker 1: I struck the match and threw it upon the floor,
Speaker 1: and it must have bounced up on the bed and
Speaker 1: set fire to it. I saw my mother and brother
Speaker 1: lying on the floor, and I was scared, so I
Speaker 1: didn't know what I was doing. He my father had
Speaker 1: threatened all our lives several times before this. I would
Speaker 1: not have killed my father if it had not been
Speaker 1: to save my own life. I make this statement now
Speaker 1: to mister Scales with without fear or threats. I only
Speaker 1: want to tell someone how it happened, Signed William Lee.
Speaker 1: The devastation of the Lee home where three of the
Speaker 1: family were slain, is going forward by degrees owing to
Speaker 1: the morbid curiosity of souvenir hunters. Splinters from the weather boarding,
Speaker 1: glass from the windows, and pieces of the bedclothing are
Speaker 1: being carried away by many people who go to the
Speaker 1: scene of Thursday's awful tragedy. Photographers flocked to the house
Speaker 1: Friday and took pictures. Visitors tore boards from the side
Speaker 1: of the house and carried things away from the rooms
Speaker 1: that they could reach through the glassless window frames. Unless
Speaker 1: the police take some measure of protection, the house will
Speaker 1: be badly damaged before Willie Lee has gone to trial.
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Speaker 1: Lad Edition Extra. To Shriff John J. Davis this afternoon,
Speaker 1: Willie Lee confessed that he killed his mother, father, and
Speaker 1: brother at Boonville early Thursday morning, and then set the
Speaker 1: bed in their room afire to destroy the bodies and
Speaker 1: evidence with flames. He made a clean breast of everything.
Speaker 1: Nothing stands between him and the gallows now, he told
Speaker 1: the sheriff. He went home Wednesday night and said he
Speaker 1: was going to get married the next day, and made
Speaker 1: a demand for money, and that this demand was denied.
Speaker 1: A quarrel followed, he said, and he went into his
Speaker 1: room and waited until they had gone to sleep. Then
Speaker 1: he slipped out and got the axe, killed his father
Speaker 1: with one terrific blow, struck his mother, and beat down
Speaker 1: his brother, who was awakened and made an effort to
Speaker 1: get up. He made several efforts to get the fire
Speaker 1: to burn, he said, and when he thought it was
Speaker 1: under good headway, ran out of the house and gave
Speaker 1: the alarm, hoping to give the appearance that he was innocent.
Speaker 1: The axe found in the kitchen, he says, is the
Speaker 1: one used. He washed it off and threw the water
Speaker 1: into the vault. The water he washed his own hands
Speaker 1: with was thrown into the same place. He says. He
Speaker 1: carried his revolver in the room to shoot any one
Speaker 1: of them that might get the best of him. When
Speaker 1: he went back to the house, he picked up the
Speaker 1: revolver and put it in his room to avert suspicion.
Speaker 1: The full admissions of his guilt were made to Sheriff
Speaker 1: Davis between ten and twelve o'clock today, when the sheriff
Speaker 1: was closeted with him for two hours. At noon, the
Speaker 1: sheriff left the jail and went to his office in
Speaker 1: the courthouse and locked the doors. A reporter tried the
Speaker 1: door and could not get in. Ten minutes later the
Speaker 1: sheriff came out. He went back into his office with
Speaker 1: a reporter and then admitted that a completed confession had
Speaker 1: been made. Willie Lee's Confession in full, as written by
Speaker 1: Willie Lee and given to Detective John Hoagland on August
Speaker 1: twenty sixth, nineteen eleven, Written at the jail at Princeton.
Speaker 1: I make this confession of my own free will, without
Speaker 1: any promises on the part of anyone and in the
Speaker 1: hopes that it will clear the mystery of the murder
Speaker 1: of my father, mother, and brother. My father and mother
Speaker 1: both threatened to kill me on several occasions, and had
Speaker 1: the morning before this murder. That night when I got home,
Speaker 1: I did not sleep very good, not over fifteen minutes
Speaker 1: at a time. I heard a noise the next morning
Speaker 1: about four o'clock, and the noise frightened me, and I
Speaker 1: got up. I thought my father and mother were going
Speaker 1: to kill me, getting up to kill me, and I
Speaker 1: thought I would beat the old man to it. I
Speaker 1: saw the axe sitting in the corner of the room
Speaker 1: when I went to bed that evening, and I got
Speaker 1: up and went and got this axe and hit my
Speaker 1: mother with the back part of the axe two licks,
Speaker 1: thinking I was hitting my father, and then I turned
Speaker 1: and hit my brother three licks. I hit him. He
Speaker 1: got up and staggered against the wall and fell. Then
Speaker 1: as I turned, the old man was coming toward me
Speaker 1: and said you, I will fix you and grabbed for me,
Speaker 1: and I took the axe with both hands and hit
Speaker 1: the old man with the back part of it. Then
Speaker 1: I struck a match to see what I had done,
Speaker 1: and saw that I had fixed all of them. I
Speaker 1: threw the match down on the straw tick and the
Speaker 1: flames shot up. I then run into my room, picked
Speaker 1: up my pants, and saw the place was a fire.
Speaker 1: I then started out of the door and to get
Speaker 1: out of the house and struck the door facing, which
Speaker 1: knocked me back. I then straightened up and ran out
Speaker 1: and ran into the porch post. Then I ran into
Speaker 1: the yard and put my pants on and ran to
Speaker 1: the nearest neighbor, Frank Freeman, but did not get Freeman awake.
Speaker 1: I then went on too long Hedge's house, and I
Speaker 1: woke him up and told him the house was a fire.
Speaker 1: I just started over to the house and stepped back
Speaker 1: and said, Lon, the folks are in the house and
Speaker 1: the house is afire, Come and help get them out.
Speaker 1: And he came and tried to help me get them out.
Speaker 1: And all the doors were locked, all but the one
Speaker 1: I went out at. The windows were fastened also, and
Speaker 1: we bursted the lower panels of the back door to
Speaker 1: get in. We did not get in that way and
Speaker 1: went around to the front. The front door had been
Speaker 1: broken open by somebody after the fire alarm had been
Speaker 1: turned in they started the water in lawn had started
Speaker 1: the water in, and I dashed a bucket full in.
Speaker 1: They had got the hose out by that time, and
Speaker 1: I could not get back there anymore. My father whipped
Speaker 1: me when I was twelve years old, cut the blood
Speaker 1: out of me in several places, and had a feeling
Speaker 1: against me ever since. My older brother, who's now dead,
Speaker 1: says to me, if he does not quit this, let's
Speaker 1: kill him, and I said, yes, let us do it.
Speaker 1: We have continued family quarrels all of our lives, and
Speaker 1: father has called me one after another at different times.
Speaker 1: And the morning before the murder, when I left to
Speaker 1: go to Newburgh to see my girl, my father and
Speaker 1: mother both threatened to kill me. I'm sorry now that
Speaker 1: I did not make this confession at Boonville to Sheriff's sales.
Speaker 1: But I was afraid on account of the feeling that
Speaker 1: I thought would be against me there, and I have
Speaker 1: made an awful mistake, and I am sorry for it.
Speaker 1: Signed William Lee, August twenty sixth, nineteen eleven January twenty third,
Speaker 1: nineteen twelve. A plea of insanity is Willie Lee's defense
Speaker 1: for slaying his mother, father, and brother on the night
Speaker 1: of August twenty fourth at Boonville, the day before his
Speaker 1: marriage to Mina Taylor was to take place. Lee went
Speaker 1: on trial in the Vandenburg County Courthouse whilst Tuesday morning,
Speaker 1: pleading not guilty. His attorneys filed at the same time
Speaker 1: a plea of insanity, and the state filed a denial
Speaker 1: there too. Lee came into the courtroom dressed in the
Speaker 1: same blue suit, the same pale green tie, the same
Speaker 1: low cut shoes, and the same hat he wore on
Speaker 1: the night the murder took place, and he ran from
Speaker 1: the home to the house of a neighbor and gave
Speaker 1: the alarm. The sweetheart, Mina Taylor, who was to be
Speaker 1: his bride the day following the murder, was in the courtroom.
Speaker 1: She kept her eyes from him, however, and looked steadily
Speaker 1: at Judge Spencer. She is neatly dressed and attractive looking.
Speaker 1: When the defense called its list of witnesses, her name
Speaker 1: was called, Lee did not look toward her once during
Speaker 1: the morning. He kept his eyes on his hat on
Speaker 1: his knees and fingered it incessantly. His eyes are sunken,
Speaker 1: like the eyes of a haunted man. The cheekbones are prominent,
Speaker 1: but his lips hold the same unconcerned expression. He is
Speaker 1: at least thirty pounds lighter than when arrested. There are
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty five witnesses summoned in the case,
Speaker 1: and the indications are that the trial will consume most
Speaker 1: of the week. The testimony bearing upon Lee's insanity will
Speaker 1: consume a lot of time. January twenty fifth, nineteen twelve.
Speaker 1: Owing to the crowds and commotion attending the Lee trial,
Speaker 1: Judge Spencer Thursday morning ordered the bailiffs to clear the
Speaker 1: room and hallways of spectators. Only witnesses, attorneys, court attaches,
Speaker 1: and newspaper reporters are allowed in the courtroom. Many women
Speaker 1: had been attending the trial. By strong circuit substantial evidence
Speaker 1: the triple murder of his father, mother, and brother is
Speaker 1: being more tightly fasted upon Willie Lee. Strong links were
Speaker 1: added to the chain of incriminating evidence Thursday, when June Sutton,
Speaker 1: a cousin of Willie Lee, a nephew of the dead woman,
Speaker 1: took the stand. He began with an incident that took
Speaker 1: place several weeks before the killing quote, I went to
Speaker 1: my aunt's house to borrow five dollars. As I stepped
Speaker 1: up on the porch, I heard angry talking. I saw
Speaker 1: my aunt Emma, my uncle, Richard Clarence Lee, and Willie
Speaker 1: at the table. I saw Willie Lee rise and square
Speaker 1: himself to strike his mother, and I heard him say
Speaker 1: to her, dry up, or I'll smash your goddamn mouth.
Speaker 1: The others appeared afraid to say anything. I stepped in
Speaker 1: and asked, what's the matter, aunt Emma. She replied, Willie
Speaker 1: has spent all my money and left me nothing. Within
Speaker 1: a few minutes, my uncle went to work. Willie Lee
Speaker 1: told her to dry up again, and I left. On
Speaker 1: the morning of the murder, I went to the Lee home.
Speaker 1: When I got there, Willie Lee was sitting on the
Speaker 1: porch smoking. I asked him what caused this? He answered,
Speaker 1: I don't know. Ain't it awful? I went through the
Speaker 1: house and saw blood marks on the kitchen door and
Speaker 1: above the latch about four feet from the ground. I
Speaker 1: saw the lamp was empty, and the chimney was off,
Speaker 1: and the burner was not screwed on. I went to
Speaker 1: the jail to see Willie Lee the day he was arrested.
Speaker 1: He asked what I thought of the murders. A week
Speaker 1: after he was returned from Jeffersonville, I saw him at
Speaker 1: the jail and I asked him if he had killed
Speaker 1: his folks. He answered, I ain't allowed to talk. You'll
Speaker 1: find out later. I asked him if anybody helped him.
Speaker 1: He said, by God, who do you think I could
Speaker 1: get to help me? I said, I didn't know whether
Speaker 1: there was another fool to be found like him. Several
Speaker 1: days after the murder, I went to the Lee home
Speaker 1: discovered blood marks on the washpan just under the rim.
Speaker 1: It was a white granite pan. The state began getting
Speaker 1: to the heart of the damaging testimony when James Albert Ryan,
Speaker 1: who lives across from the Lee home, was called. He
Speaker 1: surprised even the state's attorneys when he testified that he
Speaker 1: saw the burner and chimney off the lamp, as if
Speaker 1: the oil had been poured out. The admission came on
Speaker 1: redirect examination, the defense having opened the way by a
Speaker 1: question relative to the smell of coal oil. The witness
Speaker 1: said he detected the odor of coal oil in the
Speaker 1: room where the bodies lay. He also testified that blood
Speaker 1: still was running from the bodies when they were carried out.
Speaker 1: When he ran to the house. He said, Willie Lee
Speaker 1: said to him, my people are in there, burning up,
Speaker 1: and Thomas Small The state produced the witness who kicked
Speaker 1: the south door in, smashed a window, and rushed in
Speaker 1: rescue the three members of the family. He saw the
Speaker 1: body of Richard Lee, the father, in a sitting posture
Speaker 1: on the side of the bed, and fire burning under
Speaker 1: his legs. He said that Willie Lee made no effort
Speaker 1: to get his father, mother, and brother out, but smoked
Speaker 1: and occasionally wailed. Lee Petticourd, who lives near the Leees,
Speaker 1: was the first witness testifying Thursday for the state. He
Speaker 1: said that he went to the Lee home when the
Speaker 1: fire alarm was given. He helped break in a door.
Speaker 1: He asked Willie Lee where his parents were, and the
Speaker 1: answer was they were in the room where the fire was.
Speaker 1: The witness saw the bodies carried out of the house.
Speaker 1: He saw the imprint of a bloody hand on the wall.
Speaker 1: He said Willie Lee smoked cigarettes while the bodies were
Speaker 1: being carried out. The witness said he passed the house
Speaker 1: several days before and heard Willie Lee and his mother quarreling,
Speaker 1: and heard Willie Lee call her a damned old fool.
Speaker 1: Frank Freeman, who lives across the street from the Lees,
Speaker 1: went to the Lee home when the fire alarm was given.
Speaker 1: He found Willie Lee in front crying. He asked where
Speaker 1: the folks were, and Lee said they were smothered to death.
Speaker 1: He testified that the old man had fallen as if
Speaker 1: he had been hit while sitting on the side of
Speaker 1: the bed. Willie Lee had on a freshly laundered shirt,
Speaker 1: he said, and he put his arm around me and said, oh,
Speaker 1: what will I do. Freeman was the first witness to
Speaker 1: say that Lee showed any emotion whatever. Arthur Powers testified
Speaker 1: that he called the undertaker after a conversation with Willie Lee,
Speaker 1: in which Lee groaned and said, oh, my poor father
Speaker 1: and mother. Jacob Eifler found Lee running his hands through
Speaker 1: his hair and saying something including my people. Eifler secured
Speaker 1: a lantern and carried the bodies of Clarence Lee and
Speaker 1: Richard Lee out of the room. Prosecutor Davis declared late
Speaker 1: Wednesday afternoon that when Lee was a small boy and
Speaker 1: his oldest brother was living, that his father whipped them
Speaker 1: and they agreed to kill him if he ever did
Speaker 1: it again. He said that Lee had slapped his mother
Speaker 1: in the face and called her a vile name when
Speaker 1: she asked him what he did with her money. He
Speaker 1: said that when a Newburgh woman asked Lee how his
Speaker 1: parents were, he replied, you need not be surprised to
Speaker 1: wake up some morning and find them all lying in
Speaker 1: a pile. He said that Lee had asked for the
Speaker 1: hand of Mina Taylor on the very day he drew
Speaker 1: his last five dollars from the bank, but had assured
Speaker 1: her father he had ample finances to care for. All
Speaker 1: through this, Lee never batted an eye, never flinched, never spoke,
Speaker 1: but all the time that strange something was showing in
Speaker 1: his eyes, around the dark rings, that worry has wrought there.
Speaker 1: Missus Fanny Sutton, a sister to Lee's murdered mother, took
Speaker 1: the stand. She had been crying silently all afternoon. She
Speaker 1: swore that she once heard Willie Lee say that he
Speaker 1: would never be satisfied until he had killed his brother Clarence.
Speaker 1: Her testimony showed that for years he was quarreling with
Speaker 1: his relatives and making fearful threats against their lives. When
Speaker 1: his anger was flamed Mina Taylor, Willie Lee's Sweetheart is
Speaker 1: one of the most interested witnesses at the trial of
Speaker 1: Lee on the triple murder charge. She is tall and mediumly, pretty,
Speaker 1: but not attractive. She wears a blue hat with a
Speaker 1: few white and blue feathers in a dark coat suit
Speaker 1: with a white shirt waist. She stood behind the railing
Speaker 1: during Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning, just where she could
Speaker 1: look at Lee without being seen by him. However, she
Speaker 1: did not appear to take any more interest in him
Speaker 1: than other witnesses in the court room. She looked toward
Speaker 1: him when his name was mentioned by attorneys. She is
Speaker 1: to be one of the witnesses for the defense, but
Speaker 1: the state expects to get valuable admissions from her. After
Speaker 1: Lee's arrest and confession, she announced that she was glad
Speaker 1: she did not marry him. She shows no trace of
Speaker 1: disappointed love or broken heart. She speaks to her companions
Speaker 1: from Newburgh rarely and strikes one as a quiet, sensible
Speaker 1: girl of a modest disposition. Mina Taylor was called to
Speaker 1: the stand Thursday afternoon. Lee watched her closely. She said
Speaker 1: she had known him about five years. She said he
Speaker 1: was at her home the evening before the murder, and
Speaker 1: they drove to Newburgh. They went to a rank for
Speaker 1: the marriage, she said. She said. He arranged for her
Speaker 1: to select furniture in Boonville. The next day he was
Speaker 1: to accompany her back to Newburgh for the marriage. He
Speaker 1: had a revolver. He told her he was financially able
Speaker 1: to be married. He did not tell her how much
Speaker 1: money he had a week before, he said he had
Speaker 1: one hundred dollars, some at home and some at the
Speaker 1: Citizens Bank at Newburgh. They were to be married by
Speaker 1: Reverend Williams. He saw the minister, she said. The girl
Speaker 1: said she had kept company with Lee for three years,
Speaker 1: and that she was now past seventeen. Willie Lee reflects
Speaker 1: some strange quality in his face. He is either scared, remorseful,
Speaker 1: or conscience stricken. He is not indifferent, as some reporters
Speaker 1: have said. He is deeply concerned. While there is not
Speaker 1: so much show of it as he faces his peers,
Speaker 1: he shows it in every inch of his care lined face,
Speaker 1: every splotch of his pallid features. He appeared to be
Speaker 1: immovably weighted down with the brain burden and heart sorrow.
Speaker 1: Willie Lee may not have ever known remorse since the
Speaker 1: commission of his triple crime. The state says, he is
Speaker 1: not that kind of boy, but the sort who regards
Speaker 1: only himself as all important. They say that Willie Lee
Speaker 1: never mixed love, veneration, energy, and goodness in the crucible
Speaker 1: of his life. He was always a wayward, stubborn, parrin
Speaker 1: hating boy, the state says. And above all things, Willie
Speaker 1: Lee admired girls and was a free spender. But the
Speaker 1: money that he spent was the money that his father
Speaker 1: swept for, and his mother surreptitiously slipped him for fear
Speaker 1: of him. The state says. The feeling in the courtroom,
Speaker 1: which the lawyers call the atmosphere, is against Lee. He
Speaker 1: has no sympathizers. Once Wednesday, an old woman veiled in
Speaker 1: black approached him and said, God, have mercy on your soul,
Speaker 1: my boy. Then, for the first time, Willie Lee cried
Speaker 1: and choked. The stoical look came back to his face
Speaker 1: again soon, and it did not change. While Prosecutor Davis
Speaker 1: riddled him in his opening statement reviewing the heinous acts
Speaker 1: he alleged would be proven against Lee. January twenty seventh,
Speaker 1: nineteen twelve, the hardheartedness of Willie Lee was evinced Friday afternoon,
Speaker 1: when his attorney, Tom Lindsay made the opening statement in
Speaker 1: his behalf for thirty minutes. The attorney told of the
Speaker 1: goodness of Lee's mother, of the kindness of his father,
Speaker 1: and the brotherly love of his brother. He said that
Speaker 1: they had almost idolized Willie Lee in his boyhood, and
Speaker 1: that he repaid their love with suspicions that he was
Speaker 1: being mistreated. The contrast was drawn to show the character
Speaker 1: of his mind to infer an insane tendency. But as
Speaker 1: overpowering as it was, Willie Lee never lost his iron nerve.
Speaker 1: He sat like a wooden Indian while his relatives dried
Speaker 1: their eyes. As the trial goes on, the suspicion that
Speaker 1: Willie Lee has none of the kinder passions of humanity
Speaker 1: is strengthened. If he has any fear, remorse, or pity
Speaker 1: within him, he is too strong willed to betray it.
Speaker 1: The jostling, jamming, and crowding at the Lee trial Saturday
Speaker 1: afternoon was fierce, and during the confusion a large glass
Speaker 1: door was broken, the crash being heard in all parts
Speaker 1: of the large structure and along nearby streets. Immediately after
Speaker 1: the crash, a large crowd flocked to the courthouse thinking
Speaker 1: something of an extraordinary nature had occurred. On the stands
Speaker 1: Saturday afternoon, Willie Lee admitted that he had killed his
Speaker 1: parents and brother, but said it was all like a dream.
Speaker 1: He admitted that he made the confessions, but said he
Speaker 1: felt like he was in a dream at the time.
Speaker 1: He denied nothing except the immaterial points which were not
Speaker 1: made clear. His testimony was a bomb in the camp
Speaker 1: of the state's attorneys. They expected him to deny everything.
Speaker 1: The result of it is in doubt. It struck many
Speaker 1: of the people who hurt him as being more damaging
Speaker 1: than the written confessions. Willie Lee was cool and self possessed.
Speaker 1: When he talked, he did not show emotion. His mannerism
Speaker 1: seemed to have a decided effect upon the jurors. His
Speaker 1: own admissions seemed to shock some of them. Willie Lee
Speaker 1: said he was twenty two on November twentieth. He said
Speaker 1: he had typhoid pneumonia when he was a boy and
Speaker 1: had to stop going to school and was left with
Speaker 1: pains in his head. He said that he had no
Speaker 1: disputes and no trouble with his father. He said that
Speaker 1: it seemed to his mind that his folks were against him,
Speaker 1: that he frequently had pains in the head and often
Speaker 1: awoke in the night with them. He named the physicians
Speaker 1: who attended him while he suffered with pains in the head.
Speaker 1: He told of frequent dizziness. He told of the tender
Speaker 1: care his mother took of him when he was sick.
Speaker 1: He said he had had an injury that approached a rupture.
Speaker 1: He said he met Mina Taylor five or six years
Speaker 1: ago at the home of his married brother, now dead.
Speaker 1: He said that his mother gave him one hundred dollars
Speaker 1: of the money for which she sold the house. He
Speaker 1: said that he had given her the money prior to
Speaker 1: that time, and she promised to give him one hundred
Speaker 1: dollars when she sold the house. He told of putting
Speaker 1: the one hundred dollars in the Newburgh Bank. With the
Speaker 1: testimony of Willie Lee and his own defense, the defense
Speaker 1: will conclude its evidence Saturday afternoon. The plea of insanity
Speaker 1: was not well borne up by the evidence. At least
Speaker 1: five of the defendants insanity witnesses declared frankly that they
Speaker 1: believed him sane, One or two said they did not know,
Speaker 1: and one woman said she thought he was not right.
Speaker 1: There has not been any preponderance of evidence to show insanity,
Speaker 1: and every time counsel for the defense has gotten a
Speaker 1: halfway admission of insanity, the state's attorneys have smashed it.
Speaker 1: It is the opinion of disinterested attorneys that the plea
Speaker 1: of insanity will not hold water. It has been so
Speaker 1: far a losing fight, apparently for the defendant, because of
Speaker 1: the flimsy evidence to support any kind of plea that
Speaker 1: might have been advanced. The insanity plea was judged by
Speaker 1: his attorneys to be his strongest fortification, and that is
Speaker 1: going glimmering with proof by the state that all the
Speaker 1: insanity in his family took place after serious accidents. Josephine Jones,
Speaker 1: a nurse, was the defense's first witness Saturday morning. She
Speaker 1: became acquainted with Willie Lee at Newburgh when he was
Speaker 1: ten years old, and she lived in the flat over
Speaker 1: the residence of the Lea. She was intimately acquainted with
Speaker 1: the family. She said Lee didn't believe the earth revolved
Speaker 1: around the sun, that if it did, it would be
Speaker 1: impossible for people to stand on their feet when the
Speaker 1: world was upside down. Willie Lee would cry, she said,
Speaker 1: for hours after he had been chastised. She said Willie
Speaker 1: Lee did not believe in religion and remarked that the
Speaker 1: Bible sounded to him like a novel. Willie Lee and
Speaker 1: his mother seemed devoted and often walked hand in hand.
Speaker 1: Richard Lee she characterized as a good, ignorant man. The
Speaker 1: witness told of the accidental death of missus Lee's brother,
Speaker 1: saying missus Lee said she didn't care so much, as
Speaker 1: she had never liked him anyhow. Threats that missus Lee
Speaker 1: made to commit suicide were recalled by the witness. She
Speaker 1: said missus Lee often told her husband when he came
Speaker 1: home that he might find her dead. She said she
Speaker 1: didn't believe Willie Lee was mentally sound, that his mother
Speaker 1: was not sound in mind, and that Lee's father was
Speaker 1: mentally weak. The state forced the witness to admit that
Speaker 1: she lived over the Lee residence without fear of harm,
Speaker 1: and she finally admitted that they might not have been crazy,
Speaker 1: but just not bright. She talked with missus Lee three
Speaker 1: weeks before her death, and the latter made the remark
Speaker 1: that her boys were good. Missus Lee, she said, never
Speaker 1: said anything to her about Willie Lee being insane. She
Speaker 1: made a poor witness. Prosecutor Davis tore her testimony into tatters.
Speaker 1: One of the props of Willie Lee's insanity defense was
Speaker 1: smashed to smithereens Friday afternoon by the state. Homer Sutton,
Speaker 1: a step uncle of Lee, was put on the stand
Speaker 1: by the He is the husband of Lee's aunt, a
Speaker 1: sister to his mother. Missus Sutton was the wife of
Speaker 1: Joe Lee, now dead, and Joe Lee was a brother
Speaker 1: of Willie Lee's father. The two Lee brothers, Joe and Richard,
Speaker 1: married sisters. Later, Joe Lee's widow married Sutton. Sutton testified
Speaker 1: that Edward L. Lee, a cousin of the accused, is insane,
Speaker 1: and at his house he told of having him in
Speaker 1: jail four years for insanity. The defense tried to prove
Speaker 1: insanity in the family by him, but the defense got
Speaker 1: a surprise by one question. Prosecutor Or A. Lee blowed
Speaker 1: up the witness quote, didn't Edward Lee fall in an
Speaker 1: open fire about four years ago and strike his head
Speaker 1: on an iron bar of the grate and wasn't as insanity? Noticed?
Speaker 1: After this unquote, Sutton admitted that such was the case.
Speaker 1: The victory was the biggest score of the trial for
Speaker 1: the state's attorneys January twenty ninth, nineteen twelve. Willie Lee,
Speaker 1: accused of killing his father, mother, and brother, slipped into
Speaker 1: abated traps set by the state's attorneys Monday when he
Speaker 1: told the minutest detail of every incident that happened the
Speaker 1: week of the murder of his parents and brother. Discreetly,
Speaker 1: Prosecutor Davis led him to every incident up to the murders.
Speaker 1: Then he jumped to what followed the murders, and Lee
Speaker 1: described accurately all that happened and what certain individuals wore. Then, triumphantly,
Speaker 1: the state's attorney pounced upon him. He asked him about
Speaker 1: the murders, and Willie Lee never denied committing them, but
Speaker 1: said it was all like a dream. Why should he
Speaker 1: remember such trifles before and after and let the biggest
Speaker 1: criminal events in his life slip? His memory was put
Speaker 1: to him, and he failed to make any kind of
Speaker 1: a satisfactory explanation. He left the stand at ten fifty five,
Speaker 1: having made a damaging witness. In his own behalf, he
Speaker 1: could remember what sheriff's scales and Prosecutor Davis drank during
Speaker 1: the trip to Jeffersonville and how much they drank two
Speaker 1: whiskeys apiece a bottle of beer each split a half,
Speaker 1: and then consumed a pine of whiskey in the auto.
Speaker 1: He could remember that he drank an oyster cocktail, but
Speaker 1: the details of the murder he could not remember. He
Speaker 1: was asked if he did not tell Gurley Sutton the
Speaker 1: day after the murders that he had killed the whole
Speaker 1: damn family and then walked out to the Big Four
Speaker 1: mine and returned to the house with a plan to
Speaker 1: burn the house and consume the bodies again. He said
Speaker 1: his mind was not clear about it, but he would
Speaker 1: not say he had not said it. If I did
Speaker 1: do it, I do not know, oh, he said evasively.
Speaker 1: The state is trying to fix upon Willie Lee as
Speaker 1: cold blooded case of murder as it is possible to establish.
Speaker 1: The defense is quibbling with immaterial things. No big card
Speaker 1: that might mitigate Willy Lee's crime has been played by
Speaker 1: the defense. His attorneys have a whimsical claim to insanity
Speaker 1: and that's about all. Although the state has shown that
Speaker 1: Edward Lee did not become insane until he fell into
Speaker 1: a fire and struck his head on an iron bar.
Speaker 1: The defense introduced two records of insanity inquests. Monday, after
Speaker 1: Willie Lee had been taken off the stand, Uncle wash Lee,
Speaker 1: apparently eighty, was put on the stand to show that
Speaker 1: John Lee and Simon Lee, distant relatives of Willie Lee,
Speaker 1: had been insane. He said that Simon Lee had once
Speaker 1: killed a man, the name was not brought out. He
Speaker 1: said that he had heard that John Lee slept with
Speaker 1: a butcher knife under his pillow, But the state's attorneys
Speaker 1: showed that John Lee was not insane until after he
Speaker 1: had been sick with typhoid fever, and forced the acknowledgment
Speaker 1: that Simon Lee was a cripple and excessively hot headed,
Speaker 1: but he was a normal man when he was not
Speaker 1: made angry. The state's attorneys overlooked a material point by
Speaker 1: failing to ask Willie Lee how he expected to buy
Speaker 1: a marriage license and pay the preacher. He testified he
Speaker 1: had only two dollars and five cents the night of
Speaker 1: the murder and was to be married the next day.
Speaker 1: Prosecutor Davis objected to the entrance of the insanity records
Speaker 1: in the trial, citing a court opinion that such inquests
Speaker 1: were no more important than an affidavit Judge Spencer overruled
Speaker 1: the motion. The cross questioning of Willie Lee, charged with
Speaker 1: triple murder, began with the opening of court Monday. The
Speaker 1: prisoner was calm when Prosecutor Davis began to cross fire
Speaker 1: questions at him. He showed a remarkable memory by giving
Speaker 1: the names of many of his schoolmates, which, in the
Speaker 1: light of the bad memory of details around the crime,
Speaker 1: looked rather bad for him. He recalled also all the
Speaker 1: names of the doctors who treated him in his lifetime.
Speaker 1: He admitted that he voluntarily left the courthouse and went
Speaker 1: down to the morgue to see his folks. This was
Speaker 1: brought out to show that he was not in fear
Speaker 1: of mob violence, as he had said Saturday when he
Speaker 1: stated his confessions were obtained through fear. Lee said he
Speaker 1: wouldn't say if he did or did not say en
Speaker 1: Root from Jeffersonville that his last confessions were true. He
Speaker 1: said he didn't remember. He recalled the persons who were present. However,
Speaker 1: when the conversation took place, he was asked if he
Speaker 1: offered to show Sheriff Scales and Prosecutor Davis how the
Speaker 1: murders were committed, if they would take him down to
Speaker 1: the house. He said he might have said it and
Speaker 1: would not say he did say it. Lee was asked
Speaker 1: if he did not tell Scales the same day that
Speaker 1: he killed his folks because they were so mean to him.
Speaker 1: He replied that he did not think so, but he
Speaker 1: could not say positively that he did not. Lee hesitated
Speaker 1: at times and made the prosecutor repeat questions. He admitted
Speaker 1: the first confession and said he thought by making it
Speaker 1: he would get out of trouble and get away from
Speaker 1: the mob. The murderer was forced to admit that he
Speaker 1: is doing all he can now to get out of trouble.
Speaker 1: Lee told of the crowd that surrounded the jail when
Speaker 1: he had his picture taken. He said he heard people
Speaker 1: say he ought to be mobbed. He said he was
Speaker 1: not able to work, but was able to see a
Speaker 1: sweetheart frequently, and thought he was able to marry. He
Speaker 1: said his mother kept him some applied with money. He
Speaker 1: testified that he had only two dollars on the evening
Speaker 1: of the murder. He was asked if he told the
Speaker 1: coroner the day of the murder that he had one
Speaker 1: hundred dollars in the bank. He said he diad but
Speaker 1: admitted he lied, quote, I told the coroner that because
Speaker 1: I was afraid of the mob, unquote, the same mob
Speaker 1: you went through to the morgue without fear. The prosecutor questioned,
Speaker 1: scoring a point against Lee's veracity. Lee said he had
Speaker 1: a pain in his head and was dizzy when he
Speaker 1: was on the witness stand Saturday. He was asked if
Speaker 1: he had the pain in the head while in the
Speaker 1: jail before the trial, and was asked why he did
Speaker 1: not call for a headache tablets before last Thursday, after
Speaker 1: the trial started. He could not explain this. It was
Speaker 1: brought out that he had taken only four headache tablets
Speaker 1: since his imprisonment. Lee was forced to admit that he
Speaker 1: had exhausted at his bank account on August twenty fourth.
Speaker 1: He said he fixed the date for his marriage in
Speaker 1: June nineteen eleven, and that his mother sold her house
Speaker 1: after that and gave him one hundred dollars. He refused
Speaker 1: to admit that his mother had given him the money
Speaker 1: to get married on He did not deny that he
Speaker 1: spent the money foolishly, despite the fact that the date
Speaker 1: for his marriage was approaching. He was asked if the
Speaker 1: weather was hot on the night of the murders, He answered,
Speaker 1: you know how hot it is in August, and he
Speaker 1: smiled slightly. Willie Lee got confused when he was questioned
Speaker 1: about the murders. He said, I went home, went through
Speaker 1: the room in which the folks slept, and struck a match.
Speaker 1: Question did you see your folks in the room? Answer no,
Speaker 1: I do not remember seeing any of them. Question but
Speaker 1: you do remember you struck a match and got a drink,
Speaker 1: but do not remember of seeing any of your folks?
Speaker 1: Answer no, sir. Question what did you do then? Answer?
Speaker 1: I went into my room and went to bed. Lee
Speaker 1: remembered well enough all of the events taking place after
Speaker 1: the murders. Several times he caught himself about to say
Speaker 1: something and changed his words. He said, just as the piece.
Speaker 1: Eckstein and Marshal Levi Scales told him that he would
Speaker 1: be protected if he confessed his memory lapsed. When he
Speaker 1: was asked if he could remember the positions in which
Speaker 1: the bodies lay at the morgue, Lee was able to
Speaker 1: tell the minutest detail of his trip to Evansville in
Speaker 1: an auto, even to the clothes the officers wore and
Speaker 1: the route the auto took. He said he felt uneasy
Speaker 1: when the auto left the Boonville jail. Quote, Sheriff Davis
Speaker 1: told me when we got here that I must make
Speaker 1: a true statement to protect myself unquote. Then Lee said
Speaker 1: he wrote the second confession while he was alone in
Speaker 1: his cell. He acknowledged writing it and acknowledged the signature.
Speaker 1: He failed to remember again certain incriminating evidence, but remembered
Speaker 1: clearly the smallest details of the trip to Princeton, detailing
Speaker 1: the position of the officers in the auto. He denied
Speaker 1: that the third confession, secured by Detective Howland, was read
Speaker 1: to him. He was forced to admit that he did
Speaker 1: not object to signing the confession and did not ask
Speaker 1: that it be read over. Quote. Now you have told
Speaker 1: me everything that occurred between Sunday morning before the murder
Speaker 1: and the time you were taken to Jeffersonville, haven't you,
Speaker 1: Prosecutor Davis asked yes, Lee answered not foreseeing the trap,
Speaker 1: the prosecutor quized triumphantly, then you remember distinctly everything that
Speaker 1: took place that week except the murders. Here, Lee saw
Speaker 1: that he had stepped into a snare and made efforts
Speaker 1: to back out of his position. He fell back on
Speaker 1: the excuse that he didn't understand. Lee was asked why
Speaker 1: he said oh hell to his mother one day. Oh
Speaker 1: that was my byword, he explained. He recalled that he
Speaker 1: had gone to wear his father work Tuesday before the murder.
Speaker 1: He said his father did not cry and he did
Speaker 1: not call him out. He failed to recall what he
Speaker 1: had told the coroner about the revolver. What he did
Speaker 1: tell the coroner was that he had given the revolver
Speaker 1: to his father two weeks before, but Mina Taylor, his sweetheart,
Speaker 1: said he'd had it the night of the murder. Enjoy
Speaker 1: ad free listening at the Safehouse dubbadubadubba dot Patreon dot com.
Speaker 2: Slash True Crime Historian.
Speaker 1: January thirty first, nineteen twelve. The jurors went out for
Speaker 1: their supper before they announced they had a verdict. The
Speaker 1: verdict had been agreed upon before they left the courthouse,
Speaker 1: returning at seven point thirty, they filed into the court room.
Speaker 1: The verdict was handed to Clerk of Court, Guild Foster Willie.
Speaker 1: Lee's eyes were fixed upon him. As soon as the
Speaker 1: verdict had been read, Lee's attorneys grabbed the prisoner's hands
Speaker 1: and shook it. He smiled Willie Lee was found guilty
Speaker 1: today of the murder of his parents, Richard and Emma Lee,
Speaker 1: and his brother Clarence Lee, and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Speaker 1: The murder occurred August twenty fourth. The jury considered his youth.
Speaker 1: Lee smiled faintly when the verdict was returned, as though
Speaker 1: he appreciated the fact that he had not been sentenced
Speaker 1: to the gallows. Lee's attorneys are satisfied and will ask
Speaker 1: for a new trial. They offered to plead guilty and
Speaker 1: take life imprisonment before the trial started, but the state's
Speaker 1: attorneys refused to let him. Willie Lee's triple murder is
Speaker 1: the arch crime of criminology in Indiana in the last decade.
Speaker 1: It overreaches all others because Willie Lee finally beat to
Speaker 1: death with an axe as she slept the mother who
Speaker 1: bore him, nurtured him, and loved him, despite the ungratefulness
Speaker 1: he returned for her sacrifices. Because he brained with that
Speaker 1: same axe the father who had loved him and sought
Speaker 1: to make him an honest, industrious boy. Because he killed
Speaker 1: the brother who was his companion and his playmate in
Speaker 1: times of boyhood and in times of youth. The crime
Speaker 1: is made greater in the light of circumstances brought out
Speaker 1: at the trial, showing that Willie Lee placed the love
Speaker 1: of the girl he wanted to marry the next day
Speaker 1: over the lives of his nearest relatives and killed them
Speaker 1: to get money on which to marry Mina Taylor. The
Speaker 1: murders took place in Boonville in the early morning of
Speaker 1: August twenty fourth. Willie Lee had returned home from the
Speaker 1: tailor home where he had been with his sweetheart. Lee's
Speaker 1: mother asked him what time it was, and then asked
Speaker 1: him what he intended to do the following day. He
Speaker 1: said he intended to get married. She told him that
Speaker 1: he must not marry, but that he should stay home
Speaker 1: with her. A violent quarrel followed between Willie Lee and
Speaker 1: other members of the family, and as he went into
Speaker 1: his own room to go to bed, he saw an
Speaker 1: axe in the sleeping room in which his father, mother,
Speaker 1: and brother were sleeping. Willie Lee was restless. He slept
Speaker 1: fitfully in the night. He heard his father get up
Speaker 1: and stir then all was quiet again. Thinking his father
Speaker 1: had lain down again, he got up, crept stealthily into
Speaker 1: the room grabbed the axe and struck where he thought
Speaker 1: his father was lying. It felt to Willie Lee like
Speaker 1: he was hitting a pillow, and he knew he had
Speaker 1: struck his mother. But he struck twice again. Then he
Speaker 1: turned and struck his sleeping brother. He hit him two licks,
Speaker 1: and the brother rose and staggered, falling with his hands
Speaker 1: against the wall. Willie Lee struck him again and he
Speaker 1: fell to death. Then the aged father, Richard Lee, returned
Speaker 1: from the kitchen, where he had gone to get a drink.
Speaker 1: He rushed at Willie Lee, and the sun brained him
Speaker 1: with the axe. To wipe out the evidences of murder,
Speaker 1: Willie Lee emptied the coal oil can's contents on the bed,
Speaker 1: took the oil from a night lamp and scattered that about,
Speaker 1: and then set fire to the bed upon which his
Speaker 1: father had fallen. This done, the slayer went into the kitchen,
Speaker 1: washed his hands of the blood of his slain parents,
Speaker 1: and went to his own room and put on a
Speaker 1: clean shirt. His own bloody shirt was put on the
Speaker 1: bloody bed to be burned. When he thought the fire
Speaker 1: had gained headway enough to be raging beyond control. When
Speaker 1: the neighbors and fire department could arrive. He went out
Speaker 1: and gave the alarm and hypocritically wrung his hands and said, oh,
Speaker 1: my poor parents, and unconcernedly smoked cigarettes. The fire was
Speaker 1: put out, the horribly mutilated bodies were placed on the lawn,
Speaker 1: and it was seen that a foul murder had been done.
Speaker 1: The unerring finger of guilt pointed at Willie Lee. He
Speaker 1: was accused of the murder, and he merely inquired if
Speaker 1: people thought he would have the nerve to kill his parents.
Speaker 1: This remark cast suspicion more strongly upon him. His arrest followed.
Speaker 1: He faced the coroner's jury and told a jumbled story
Speaker 1: of having been awakened by a noise and rolling over
Speaker 1: and going back to sleep, then awakening when the smoke
Speaker 1: was suffocating him. The next day he was talked to
Speaker 1: by Sheriff Raymond Scales of Boonville, and partly broken down.
Speaker 1: He said he had killed his father after his father
Speaker 1: had killed his mother and brother and was attempting to
Speaker 1: kill him. He had taken the axe from his father,
Speaker 1: he said, and struck him with it. This was the
Speaker 1: opening wedge. The same night he was brought to Evansville
Speaker 1: so that Sheriff John J. Davis, an old detective and
Speaker 1: past master of questioning in third degrees, could get a
Speaker 1: true confession from him. Davis let Lee alone that night.
Speaker 1: The next day he saw him and talked with him
Speaker 1: about his confession to Sheriff Scales. He told Lee he
Speaker 1: did not believe that confession and pointed out to him
Speaker 1: the flaws in it, the gaps that made him out
Speaker 1: the murderer of the three. Sheriff Davis then got a
Speaker 1: complete and true confess from Willie Lee. He left paper
Speaker 1: with him and told him to write it out. Detective
Speaker 1: John Hoagland was called in and asked to go to
Speaker 1: Lee's cell with Davis. Then Willie Lee handed them the
Speaker 1: confession through the bars was read carefully. Davis saw it
Speaker 1: was not signed and handed it back to Willie Lee
Speaker 1: to sign. This was done. Sheriff Scales was then called
Speaker 1: Willie Lee asking for him, saying he wanted to tell
Speaker 1: him that the first confession was not a true confession.
Speaker 1: When Scales came to Evansville from Boonville, Willie Lee was
Speaker 1: placed in an autobobile and Scales and Detective John Hoagland
Speaker 1: started with him for Jeffersonville. They stopped at Princeton, and
Speaker 1: at the Princeton jail got a confession containing more details.
Speaker 1: It was taken by a stenographer. At Princeton, Willie Lee
Speaker 1: was asked how certain marks were made upon the back
Speaker 1: of his brother and father. He told Detective Hogland to
Speaker 1: take an axe out in the yard and strike a
Speaker 1: block of wood with it a certain way, and he
Speaker 1: would see how these same marks could be made. Lee
Speaker 1: was asked if he struck with his right or left hand,
Speaker 1: and he boastfully answered that he was a master of
Speaker 1: the axe with either hand. From Princeton, Willie Lee was
Speaker 1: taken to Jeffersonville for safe keeping. Mob talk was rife
Speaker 1: around Boonville. He remained in the Jeffersonville prison until December second,
Speaker 1: when he was taken to Boonville and attorneys were appointed
Speaker 1: to defend him. He was granted a change of venue
Speaker 1: to Vandenburg County and brought to the Evansville jail two
Speaker 1: weeks ago. The trial started last Tuesday. A plea of
Speaker 1: insanity was made by the defense. The plea was not
Speaker 1: borne out by any of the evidence. Even witnesses called
Speaker 1: to testify to his insanity testified that he was sane
Speaker 1: all through the trial, Lee seemed to be unconcerned about
Speaker 1: his position. His eyes always glowed when he entered the
Speaker 1: courtroom and saw the hundreds of eyes focused upon him.
Speaker 1: He seemed to think he was viewed as very brave
Speaker 1: and never seemed to recognize that it was the abnormal
Speaker 1: in him that attracted the crowds. Lee's sweetheart, Mina Taylor,
Speaker 1: watched him incessantly while he testified. However, she never reflected
Speaker 1: any love or admiration in his glances. Willie Lee never
Speaker 1: denied anything on the stand. He said that he might
Speaker 1: have murdered his parents and brother, but didn't believe he
Speaker 1: did anyway, It all seemed like a dream to him.
Speaker 1: He admitted making the confessions and said it seemed like
Speaker 1: a dream when he was making them. The crowds attending
Speaker 1: the trial were the largest ever gathered in the circuit courtroom.
Speaker 1: The sheriff was ordered to take the murder back to
Speaker 1: the jail, and the crowd followed behind him. He was
Speaker 1: taken out the rear door behind the judge's bench and
Speaker 1: out the Fourth Street entrance. No threatening move was made
Speaker 1: by the disappointed crowd. The trial of Willie Lee for
Speaker 1: the murder of his parents might have never occurred had
Speaker 1: he withheld his confessions of guilt. The state was without
Speaker 1: material evidence to convict him. Without the confessions. Had Willy
Speaker 1: Lee told one story after his arrest, declaring that the
Speaker 1: murders had been committed and the house was a fire
Speaker 1: when he awoke and stuck to his story despite all
Speaker 1: inducements to confess, he might now be a free man.
Speaker 1: There was some circumstantial evidence against him, but not enough
Speaker 1: of it to convict, and his own story clung to
Speaker 1: tenaciously probably would have overtoppled this. He could have framed
Speaker 1: up a plausible story regarding his bloodstained shirt found in
Speaker 1: the room where the slaughter was committed, but Willie's crime
Speaker 1: was too big to be confined in the brain cells
Speaker 1: of a human. Had he withheld confessions, he probably would
Speaker 1: have gone insane. He would have dragged him down mentally
Speaker 1: strong as he is, and fearlessness and braggadoccio. The attorneys
Speaker 1: for the state frankly confessed that they had nothing that
Speaker 1: would have been material against Willie Lee without his confessions.
Speaker 1: True quarrels might have been proven, but nobody saw the
Speaker 1: blows struck. Nobody saw Willie Lee set the house afire,
Speaker 1: and had he been cunning enough, he might have obliterated
Speaker 1: even the less important material evidence the state did get.
Speaker 1: Mina Taylor has been a constant attendant at the trial
Speaker 1: and one of the state's most important witnesses. The thought
Speaker 1: that she might now be Willie Lee's wife but for
Speaker 1: his confession of guilt does not seem to occur to her.
Speaker 1: She has no marks of regret of having lost him.
Speaker 1: Like her father, she is tall, slight, and apparently unsophisticated.
Speaker 1: She looks upon the court procedure as if she did
Speaker 1: not understand all that was transpiring. At times her eyes
Speaker 1: had a dreamy, far away look, never a look, however,
Speaker 1: of the slightest concern in Willie Lee's welfare. She does
Speaker 1: not appear to dwell reflectively in the land of might
Speaker 1: have been. She is not given to retrospections to any
Speaker 1: great degree. The first day she glanced at the prisoner
Speaker 1: only occasionally. On the day that he testified, she watched
Speaker 1: him closely, as indifferently as others in the court room
Speaker 1: observed him. Her face betrayed no emotions of her finer
Speaker 1: feelings of the heart. By looking at her, one could
Speaker 1: tell she was Willie Lee's intended bride. By her cool,
Speaker 1: calm and proper conduct at the trial, she has called
Speaker 1: speculation regarding her feelings. There are some who believe that
Speaker 1: when Willie Lee confessed that he had killed his people,
Speaker 1: her love vanished completely, that she saw the sensible side
Speaker 1: of her affairs and appreciated the fact that she had
Speaker 1: come to know the more desperate side of the man
Speaker 1: before she married him. Withel Mina Taylor impresses one as
Speaker 1: a sensible country girl who might overlook small faults in
Speaker 1: her lover, and who could cast him out and forget
Speaker 1: him for graver Ones, February one, nineteen twelve. The hisses
Speaker 1: that greeted the jury's verdict in the Willie Lee case
Speaker 1: Wednesday night were followed with rumblings of discontent Thursday. Averse
Speaker 1: opinions were everywhere expressed upon the streets of Evansville. The
Speaker 1: opinion prevails that the jurors feared to give the death penalty,
Speaker 1: though realizing it was merited. The jurors heard words of
Speaker 1: dissatisfaction when they reached their homes, and friends censored them
Speaker 1: Thursday for passing a sentence of life imprisonment upon one
Speaker 1: who had foully killed his mother, father, and brother. What
Speaker 1: kind of crime must one commit to be hanged? Was
Speaker 1: the substance of questions asked upon the street, in the courthouse,
Speaker 1: and everywhere. The verdict is the principal topic of conversation.
Speaker 1: Nobody appears to think that it gives Lee as just penalty.
Speaker 1: A death sentence was expected, and when the jurors, evidently
Speaker 1: heeding attorney Tom Lindsey's threat that they would not rest
Speaker 1: if they gave it, returned the life imprisonment penalty. Disappointment
Speaker 1: was visible on the face of every onlooker in the
Speaker 1: courtroom except Lee and his attorneys. Three jurors favored hanging,
Speaker 1: but were won over to the life sentence. The other
Speaker 1: nine jurors did not vote for the death penalty. At
Speaker 1: any time on the street Wednesday night, the excitement over
Speaker 1: the verdict and the disappointment was so high that it
Speaker 1: would not have required much agitation to have worked up
Speaker 1: a mob's spirit. Indignation was also rife in Boonville over
Speaker 1: the outcome of the Lee case. There was hardly a
Speaker 1: man or woman in Boonville who did not look for
Speaker 1: the jury at Evansville to find Lee guilty of murder
Speaker 1: in the first degree and fix the penalty at death.
Speaker 1: The crime was a blot on the state of Indiana
Speaker 1: and a terrible blot on the city of Boonville, and
Speaker 1: it was hoped that, in a way to erase the
Speaker 1: terrible effect of this crime, the jury that tried the
Speaker 1: murder would give him the extreme penalty. Epilogue. Willie Lee
Speaker 1: served out his entire life sentence, but it only lasted
Speaker 1: two and a half years. He died of tubercular meningitis
Speaker 1: in the Indiana State Penitentiary in Michigan City, September thirteenth,
Speaker 1: nineteen fourteen. That was a bloody family bed. The Triple
Speaker 1: Confessions of Willie Lee, called from the historic pages of
Speaker 1: the Evansville Press and other newspapers of the era. True
Speaker 1: Crime Historian is a creation of popular media. Opening theme
Speaker 1: by Nico Vitessi, incidental music by Dave SAMs, closing theme
Speaker 1: by Dave Sam's and Rachel Shott, engineered by David hih
Speaker 1: at Third Street Music. Media management by Sean Miller Jones.
Speaker 1: And as for me now, I've been working on my
Speaker 1: new bio. His life so far was poorly spent. Pleasure
Speaker 1: was his goal. I'm true crime historian Richard O. Jones
Speaker 1: signing off for now
Speaker 2: Algy