A Bloody Family Bed

odor in the night, as if feathers were burning. He found the bed ablaze, according to his story, and was horrified to see his father, mother, and brother dead, their heads having been crushed with what he believed to be an axe. The son notified neighbors, who rushed to the home and found the three victims of pools of blood. Some of Booneville's citizens doubt the boy's story. A rigid investigation is being made. The older son is under arrest.

True crime Historian presents Yesterday's News tales of classic scandals, scoundrels, and scourges told from historic newspapers in the golden age of yellow journalism. Episode three hundred and seventy four tells the story of an awful family murder in Booneville, Indiana, when a lazy young man and without much of a future, takes an axe to his parents and brother on the

eve of his wedding day. What offenses the family committed to deserve such a fate seemed to be all in the mind of the accused, and it takes a few tries to get a story straight. I'm true crime historian Richard O. Jones, and for your horror and indignation, I give you a bloody family bed. The Triple Confessions of

Willie Lee, Boonville, Indiana, August twenty fifth, nineteen eleven. The general impression here this afternoon is that Willie Lee, held as an alleged slayer of his father, mother, and brother, has made a complete confession. Sheriff's Scales and Coroner Farley were with the prisoner over two hours and came from the prison shortly afternoon. They soon returned, however, carrying a small roll of blank paper, presumably for taking the confession

and writing. Another reason given for believing the rumor of a confession is that Sheriff Scales this morning arranged to allow the boy to attend the funeral of the three victims. The sheriff thought the young man might show signs of weakening when confronted with the remains of the trio, But after coming from the prison the second time, the sheriff said he had decided not to take Willie to the funeral.

Now it is believed the boy has confessed, and the buggy engaged was not for the funeral, but to convey Lee to a point of safety, as feeling is running very high here, especially since the rumors of a confession became current. Sheriff Scales told Lee shortly afternoon that the residents of Boonville were very indignant that they were talking of organizing a mob to hang him. Well, if they do,

said Lee, they will hang an innocent man. Officers today found an undershirt and a pair of drawers hidden under a sheet on Willie Lee's bed. The garments were bloodstained. Young Lee. It is believed after the killing, if he did the killing, concealed the garments there. Sheriff Scales said, the clothing is the size to fit young Lee. Scales

in the corner now have the blood stained garments. The officers carefully guarded the newly found evidence and would say nothing further than that they had found underwear hidden in Young Lee's bed, and that it was covered with bloodstains. Missus Jack Eifler, a neighbor of the Lees, said today that she saw a man going in the direction of the pond, having come from the direction of the Lee home early Thursday morning. According to her story, the man

was carrying a bundle. Missus Eyfer believes that the man was Willie Lee, and that the package contained bloody tools used in the murder. It was rumored on the streets that Young Lee, held as knowing more than he is told of the terrible triple tragedy, was wavering and probably would make a clean breast of the affair, and when taken before the judge of the Circuit Court, he would throw himself on the mercy of the court. But Willie Lee remains as adamant as he was all day yesterday.

He vehemently denies knowing who perpetrated the awful deed which blotted out the lives of his father, mother and brother early Thursday morning. The coroner is still examining witnesses, and every conceivable detail that can be unearthed is sought to

fasten the responsibility on someone. Officers this afternoon are dragging a pond near the Lee home, believing they will find a pitchfork or other sharp instrument us used in the triple murder, as some of the gashes on the bodies appeared to have been inflicted by an instrument other than

the hand acts found in the kitchen. Several neighbors of the ill fated family today said Willie Lee and his parents had occasional quarrels, which contradicts Lee's story that he and his mother, father, and brother seldom allowed harsh words to come between them. There are many who believe young Lee and his parents quarreled Wednesday afternoon over his approaching marriage, and that he left home in a huff, calling on his fiancee, Miss Mina Taylor of near Newburgh, whom he

was to have married last night. It is believed that upon his return home, he was scolded for planning to marry inasmuch as he had no job and had very little money. These same people believed that after the midnight quarrel, Lee went to his room, where he waited until his parents and brother were fast asleep, and then committed the deed. This is merely the position some have taken when queried

relative to their version of the triple tragedy. Newburgh, Indiana, buxhom unsophisticated seventeen year old Mina Taylor, whose love dreams were shattered like a baby's broken doll, who today would have been the bride of Willie Lee but for the brutal massacre of his father, mother, and brother, bears up bravely under the ordeal of crushed hope. Though her castles have tumbled down about her, and her sweetheart is veritably in the shadow of grim death. Mina Taylor, the sweet

faced country girl, has not prejudged her boy. She has called him that since they were engaged. Hers is a curious name nature. She wavers like a bird with a broken wing, afraid to fly in her own heart and mind. She may believe him innocent, but she says, time, the revealer of all things, will tell. She has put away the things of a bride, and her dreams of a year have been covered over with the blightening black charge

of crime. Though her face mirrors disappointment intensely and her eyes have the red, swollen look that come after tears, Mina Taylor does not grow hysterical nor wring her hands. Hers is a sensible view of the triple tragedy. Calmly, she talks of the details, weighing this and that piece of evidence against him and discarding it when she SIPs it down to her own gauge of guilt. Her friendship

with Lee has been life long. They were sweethearts when she wore her hair down her back and long plates and froliced about the school yard in Gingham knee dresses. Later they discovered that subtle spark of love between themselves, and a year ago last spring, Lee proposed except that he did not work regularly, there was nothing against him. He did not drink, did not carouse with the boys, and she hoped he would work steadily after the marriage.

Under pressure of persuasion, John Taylor, her father, consented to the marriage, although he told Lee that Mina was too young to become a bride. The girl has Lee's bank book. When he got one hundred and twenty five dollars from his mother when the house was sold at Newburgh, he deposited one hundred dollars of it. The girl knew he had withdrawn thirty five dollars. Since she does not know that the account now is very small. The girl's mother liked young Lee because she had known him for a

long time and had heard nothing against his character. The boy was to have returned to the Taylor home Thursday morning, take the girl to Boonville to pick the furniture, select the house in which they were to live, then return to the Taylor home for dinner and the marriage ceremony. Lee left the girl Wednesday night about nine o'clock, and she says he was in good spirits and apparently far from a murderous mood. They have not communicated since the tragedy.

The funeral services for the three victims of the terrible murder were held this afternoon. The services were simple. Relatives of the dead were here to take charge of the remains. Interment was made in the cemetery at Newburgh, where a lot had been purchased by the relatives. The sheriff did not allow the prison Willie Lee to attend the services, although at noon he said he would take the young man to give him an opportunity to gaze upon the

victims for the last time. A great crowd watched the removal of the bodies from the city that a threat was made against the life of Richard Lee, dead father of Willie Lee, eleven years ago when his brother in law Ed Blanchett was killed at Newburgh by Bill Ross. Was revealed by Willie Lee before the coroner's hearing Thursday afternoon. Dan Sutton, brother in law of the dead man, husband of the dead woman's sister, is said to have made

the threat. Willie Lee told Coroner Farley that he heard Sutton say that his father, Richard Lee, was the cause of the murder of Ed Blanchett, and that Dan Sutton would never be satisfied until he got Dick Lee. The officers are trying to find out where Dan Sutton was the night Dick Lee and all its family but the one son, were murdered while they slept. Dan Sutton's wife and Missus Lee were sisters, but Dan Sutton and Dick Lee had not spoken for eleven years, says Willie Lee,

the surviving son. Though this may be an important clue, the officers are not giving it much consideration. They are pinning their efforts to fasten the crime upon the boy. Popular opinion holds him to be the most likely murderer. So far as the officers know, Dan Sutton never made an attempt on the life of his brother in law. Willie Lee, howled in connection with the triple murder at Boonville,

told a straightforward story at the coroner hearing. Quote. I came home between ten thirty and eleven o'clock Wednesday night, drove the horse to the stable, and went directly home. When I went into the house, mother was on a pallet, and she rose to a sitting position and asked me if I wasn't outlaid. I said not very, and that it was just about ten o'clock. She asked me where I was going Thursday, and I said I was going to get married. She said I was going to stay

with her, and I laughed. Then I went into my room, closed the door, and went to bed. When I woke, I was hazy and I was choking. I grabbed my trousers in my left hand, stumbled over a chair, struck the door still by falling against it, stumbled onto the porch and fell against a pillar. I put on my trousers out there and went to Lon Nedge's house and told him the house was burning, and he came back with me. I kicked the front and back doors in

and he went to get the fire department. I saw the wounds on my people's bodies when they were uncovered. He was asked, this is your revolver that was found in the room. He said it was, but that he had given it to his father two weeks ago and had not seen it until he picked it up in their room. After returning to the house with hedges, he carried it into his own room and then placed it

beside a phonograph. He was asked about an axe. He said there was only a hand axe about the house, and he had not seen it since he chopped kindling a week before and threw it into the coal pile. He said he knew his mother carried life insurance for members of the family and had seen her pay fifteen cents a week on several occasions. He said he didn't know where the oil can was kept. He and his mother were like children together, he said, and he and

his father and brother were chums. He added his mother gave him money whenever he asked for it. He declared that she gave him thirty one dollars within the last six weeks, which he had spent foolishly. He had quit his last job, he said, because his father told him he wasn't making anything of the work. He said there was no objection to his marriage, and that his father had told him when he was fifteen he could marry

whenever he wanted to. Ed Schreiber, for whom Richard Lee, the dead father worked, testified that one day, when he paid Lee nine dollars, the old man remarked that it required a good deal of money to get along, as he had to contribute liberally to his son, will Schreiber said. The aged man remarked, we have one gentleman in our family, evidently meaning that Willie didn't work but took life in an easy way. Evidence against Willie Lee bloody underclothing found

in his bed, concealed under a sheet. His revolver was found in the room where his father, mother, and brother were murdered, taken there perhaps to be used in case the axe did not accomplish its purpose. When he went to the home of Lawn Hedges and gave the alarm of fire, he was fully dressed. He told coroner Farley. He had merely grabbed his trousers and put them on outside of the house when he was awakened. When Hedges returned to the burning house. All the doors were locked.

Willie Lee says he came out the front door. The hatchet with blood and hair on it were found in a corner in the kitchen, and a coal oil can with the top off was also found there. A wash basin is missing and no keys to the house can be found. Witnesses say the boy beat his mother and demanded money frequently. He did not work for two months previous to the murder. He told the corner he had one hundred the Newburgh Bank. The cashier today says his

deposit is something like ten dollars. The marriage between the boy and Mina Taylor, which was to have occurred Thursday, met the objections of his parents. A witness declares the boy said a few days before that he would get the money for his marriage or kill the whole family. Evidence favoring Willie Lee. Willie Lee bore a good reputation. He did not drink or run with evil companions. He does not appear to be brutal. He talks frankly and

explains his conduct before and after the murder. He says his father and he were chums, and that he and his mother played like children. He stoutly maintains his innocence, and although unmoved, shows signs of Greek. He has looked upon the dead bodies without portraying any signs of guilt, and he told the Sheriff Friday he wanted to view the remains and be at the funeral. His clothes show

no blood marks. Three murders, it is said by criminal officers of Evansville, would surely have left some trace of blood upon his clothing or body. August twenty sixth, nineteen eleven. As non caring, as unperturbed, is iron nerved as he ever was. Willie Lee, self confessed murderer, is in the Vandenberg County jail. Though his confession to Sheriff Raymond's scales has made open the way for the strangling news of him.

Willie Lee is the same cold peace of humanity. He stands the memories of the crime that took away the lives of his mother, father, and brother as calmly as if they had gone naturally to their death, and not struggling before his eyes for their lives which he was crushing out by deadly blows from the axe. Willie Lee, only twenty one, is a fiend. His demeanor makes other crimes and criminals shrink to bare threads of insignificance before him.

He is the arch criminal of Indiana. For never since the Hoosier State unfurled a flag of the Union, never since the massacring Indians receded, has a murder so horrible been perpetrated in this commonwealth. Willie Lee's mother is dead and buried, and he does not show that he had any more feeling for than for the bird he might bring down with the rifle from a tree. His father is cold and death and upon the poor old bones. Willie Lee is trying to place the blame for the

triple murder. His brother is in the tomb, and the thought of the years when the two lads romped the fields together in the same joy of the barefoot days does not seem to break the steel like coldness of the young man now held behind the steel bars of the Vandenberg County Prison. Willie Lee is not thinking, apparently, of how he repaid them for the love they gave him, the sacrifices they made, the long vigils they kept when he was a frail babe in his cradle. Willie Lee's

mind does not run to appreciation. His is a vindictive mind with a turn for revenge, black fiendish crime, breeding hate. Out of his mind does not come the anguishing cry of criminal air. It is more, the boasts of a wall done deed out of his mouth do not come words of regret, nor please to God for forgiveness. Only the foul cigarette smoke curls up towards the dingy ceiling of his iron cage as a harbinger of unthinkable crimes.

Out of his eyes. Tears do not flow, but instead there comes a penetrating, desperate look of the arch criminal, so ominous that it chills the red blood of manhood. Now that the deed is done and Willie Lee has confessed, it is said that he seldom placed his arms around his mother's neck and hugged her with that sheer joy of loving babyhood. That he did not often straddle his father's knee and pat his cheek with the soft, white,

childish hand that seemed to speak child love. That he never opened his heart in a boyish brotherly love to his brother. Lee was another kind of a boy. He didn't work, He sought pleasure constantly. He begged his poor old father and mother for the dimes and dollars they scraped together and saved. A good time was what Willie Lee wanted. His life so far was poorly spent. Pleasure

was his goal. What has been the cost? I got home about ten o'clock and my mother was up and talked to me and told me she was afraid to go back to sleep. I told her I was going to bed, and I went to bed. Sometime in the night, I heard a noise like someone was walking on the floor. I turned over and went to sleep again, and it was about four o'clock or a half past four or I heard a noise and turned and ran to the door. My father met me with the axe and he said,

you damn, I'm going to kill you too. I grabbed the axe and struck him. He staggered back. I ran out the door. I saw my mother and brother lying on the floor. I didn't go to kill my father, but was scared and didn't know what I was doing. I struck the match and threw it upon the floor, and it must have bounced up on the bed and set fire to it. I saw my mother and brother lying on the floor, and I was scared, so I didn't know what I was doing. He my father had

threatened all our lives several times before this. I would not have killed my father if it had not been to save my own life. I make this statement now to mister Scales with without fear or threats. I only want to tell someone how it happened, Signed William Lee. The devastation of the Lee home where three of the family were slain, is going forward by degrees owing to

the morbid curiosity of souvenir hunters. Splinters from the weather boarding, glass from the windows, and pieces of the bedclothing are being carried away by many people who go to the scene of Thursday's awful tragedy. Photographers flocked to the house Friday and took pictures. Visitors tore boards from the side of the house and carried things away from the rooms

that they could reach through the glassless window frames. Unless the police take some measure of protection, the house will be badly damaged before Willie Lee has gone to trial.

the sheriff. He went home Wednesday night and said he was going to get married the next day, and made a demand for money, and that this demand was denied. A quarrel followed, he said, and he went into his room and waited until they had gone to sleep. Then he slipped out and got the axe, killed his father with one terrific blow, struck his mother, and beat down his brother, who was awakened and made an effort to

get up. He made several efforts to get the fire to burn, he said, and when he thought it was under good headway, ran out of the house and gave the alarm, hoping to give the appearance that he was innocent. The axe found in the kitchen, he says, is the one used. He washed it off and threw the water into the vault. The water he washed his own hands with was thrown into the same place. He says. He carried his revolver in the room to shoot any one

of them that might get the best of him. When he went back to the house, he picked up the revolver and put it in his room to avert suspicion. The full admissions of his guilt were made to Sheriff Davis between ten and twelve o'clock today, when the sheriff was closeted with him for two hours. At noon, the sheriff left the jail and went to his office in the courthouse and locked the doors. A reporter tried the door and could not get in. Ten minutes later the

sheriff came out. He went back into his office with a reporter and then admitted that a completed confession had been made. Willie Lee's Confession in full, as written by Willie Lee and given to Detective John Hoagland on August twenty sixth, nineteen eleven, Written at the jail at Princeton. I make this confession of my own free will, without any promises on the part of anyone and in the hopes that it will clear the mystery of the murder

of my father, mother, and brother. My father and mother both threatened to kill me on several occasions, and had the morning before this murder. That night when I got home, I did not sleep very good, not over fifteen minutes at a time. I heard a noise the next morning about four o'clock, and the noise frightened me, and I got up. I thought my father and mother were going to kill me, getting up to kill me, and I

thought I would beat the old man to it. I saw the axe sitting in the corner of the room when I went to bed that evening, and I got up and went and got this axe and hit my mother with the back part of the axe two licks, thinking I was hitting my father, and then I turned and hit my brother three licks. I hit him. He

got up and staggered against the wall and fell. Then as I turned, the old man was coming toward me and said you, I will fix you and grabbed for me, and I took the axe with both hands and hit the old man with the back part of it. Then I struck a match to see what I had done, and saw that I had fixed all of them. I threw the match down on the straw tick and the flames shot up. I then run into my room, picked up my pants, and saw the place was a fire.

I then started out of the door and to get out of the house and struck the door facing, which knocked me back. I then straightened up and ran out and ran into the porch post. Then I ran into the yard and put my pants on and ran to the nearest neighbor, Frank Freeman, but did not get Freeman awake. I then went on too long Hedge's house, and I woke him up and told him the house was a fire.

I just started over to the house and stepped back and said, Lon, the folks are in the house and the house is afire, Come and help get them out. And he came and tried to help me get them out. And all the doors were locked, all but the one I went out at. The windows were fastened also, and we bursted the lower panels of the back door to get in. We did not get in that way and

went around to the front. The front door had been broken open by somebody after the fire alarm had been turned in they started the water in lawn had started the water in, and I dashed a bucket full in. They had got the hose out by that time, and I could not get back there anymore. My father whipped me when I was twelve years old, cut the blood out of me in several places, and had a feeling

against me ever since. My older brother, who's now dead, says to me, if he does not quit this, let's kill him, and I said, yes, let us do it. We have continued family quarrels all of our lives, and father has called me one after another at different times. And the morning before the murder, when I left to go to Newburgh to see my girl, my father and mother both threatened to kill me. I'm sorry now that I did not make this confession at Boonville to Sheriff's sales.

But I was afraid on account of the feeling that I thought would be against me there, and I have made an awful mistake, and I am sorry for it. Signed William Lee, August twenty sixth, nineteen eleven January twenty third, nineteen twelve. A plea of insanity is Willie Lee's defense for slaying his mother, father, and brother on the night of August twenty fourth at Boonville, the day before his

marriage to Mina Taylor was to take place. Lee went on trial in the Vandenburg County Courthouse whilst Tuesday morning, pleading not guilty. His attorneys filed at the same time a plea of insanity, and the state filed a denial there too. Lee came into the courtroom dressed in the same blue suit, the same pale green tie, the same low cut shoes, and the same hat he wore on the night the murder took place, and he ran from the home to the house of a neighbor and gave

the alarm. The sweetheart, Mina Taylor, who was to be his bride the day following the murder, was in the courtroom. She kept her eyes from him, however, and looked steadily at Judge Spencer. She is neatly dressed and attractive looking. When the defense called its list of witnesses, her name was called, Lee did not look toward her once during the morning. He kept his eyes on his hat on his knees and fingered it incessantly. His eyes are sunken,

like the eyes of a haunted man. The cheekbones are prominent, but his lips hold the same unconcerned expression. He is at least thirty pounds lighter than when arrested. There are one hundred and twenty five witnesses summoned in the case, and the indications are that the trial will consume most of the week. The testimony bearing upon Lee's insanity will consume a lot of time. January twenty fifth, nineteen twelve.

Owing to the crowds and commotion attending the Lee trial, Judge Spencer Thursday morning ordered the bailiffs to clear the room and hallways of spectators. Only witnesses, attorneys, court attaches, and newspaper reporters are allowed in the courtroom. Many women had been attending the trial. By strong circuit substantial evidence the triple murder of his father, mother, and brother is

being more tightly fasted upon Willie Lee. Strong links were added to the chain of incriminating evidence Thursday, when June Sutton, a cousin of Willie Lee, a nephew of the dead woman, took the stand. He began with an incident that took place several weeks before the killing quote, I went to my aunt's house to borrow five dollars. As I stepped up on the porch, I heard angry talking. I saw my aunt Emma, my uncle, Richard Clarence Lee, and Willie

at the table. I saw Willie Lee rise and square himself to strike his mother, and I heard him say to her, dry up, or I'll smash your goddamn mouth. The others appeared afraid to say anything. I stepped in and asked, what's the matter, aunt Emma. She replied, Willie has spent all my money and left me nothing. Within a few minutes, my uncle went to work. Willie Lee told her to dry up again, and I left. On the morning of the murder, I went to the Lee home.

When I got there, Willie Lee was sitting on the porch smoking. I asked him what caused this? He answered, I don't know. Ain't it awful? I went through the house and saw blood marks on the kitchen door and above the latch about four feet from the ground. I saw the lamp was empty, and the chimney was off, and the burner was not screwed on. I went to the jail to see Willie Lee the day he was arrested.

He asked what I thought of the murders. A week after he was returned from Jeffersonville, I saw him at the jail and I asked him if he had killed his folks. He answered, I ain't allowed to talk. You'll find out later. I asked him if anybody helped him. He said, by God, who do you think I could get to help me? I said, I didn't know whether there was another fool to be found like him. Several days after the murder, I went to the Lee home discovered blood marks on the washpan just under the rim.

It was a white granite pan. The state began getting to the heart of the damaging testimony when James Albert Ryan, who lives across from the Lee home, was called. He surprised even the state's attorneys when he testified that he saw the burner and chimney off the lamp, as if the oil had been poured out. The admission came on redirect examination, the defense having opened the way by a question relative to the smell of coal oil. The witness said he detected the odor of coal oil in the

room where the bodies lay. He also testified that blood still was running from the bodies when they were carried out. When he ran to the house. He said, Willie Lee said to him, my people are in there, burning up, and Thomas Small The state produced the witness who kicked the south door in, smashed a window, and rushed in rescue the three members of the family. He saw the body of Richard Lee, the father, in a sitting posture on the side of the bed, and fire burning under

his legs. He said that Willie Lee made no effort to get his father, mother, and brother out, but smoked and occasionally wailed. Lee Petticourd, who lives near the Leees, was the first witness testifying Thursday for the state. He said that he went to the Lee home when the fire alarm was given. He helped break in a door. He asked Willie Lee where his parents were, and the answer was they were in the room where the fire was. The witness saw the bodies carried out of the house.

He saw the imprint of a bloody hand on the wall. He said Willie Lee smoked cigarettes while the bodies were being carried out. The witness said he passed the house several days before and heard Willie Lee and his mother quarreling, and heard Willie Lee call her a damned old fool. Frank Freeman, who lives across the street from the Lees, went to the Lee home when the fire alarm was given.

He found Willie Lee in front crying. He asked where the folks were, and Lee said they were smothered to death. He testified that the old man had fallen as if he had been hit while sitting on the side of the bed. Willie Lee had on a freshly laundered shirt, he said, and he put his arm around me and said, oh, what will I do. Freeman was the first witness to

say that Lee showed any emotion whatever. Arthur Powers testified that he called the undertaker after a conversation with Willie Lee, in which Lee groaned and said, oh, my poor father and mother. Jacob Eifler found Lee running his hands through his hair and saying something including my people. Eifler secured a lantern and carried the bodies of Clarence Lee and

Richard Lee out of the room. Prosecutor Davis declared late Wednesday afternoon that when Lee was a small boy and his oldest brother was living, that his father whipped them and they agreed to kill him if he ever did it again. He said that Lee had slapped his mother in the face and called her a vile name when

she asked him what he did with her money. He said that when a Newburgh woman asked Lee how his parents were, he replied, you need not be surprised to wake up some morning and find them all lying in a pile. He said that Lee had asked for the hand of Mina Taylor on the very day he drew his last five dollars from the bank, but had assured

her father he had ample finances to care for. All through this, Lee never batted an eye, never flinched, never spoke, but all the time that strange something was showing in his eyes, around the dark rings, that worry has wrought there. Missus Fanny Sutton, a sister to Lee's murdered mother, took the stand. She had been crying silently all afternoon. She swore that she once heard Willie Lee say that he would never be satisfied until he had killed his brother Clarence.

Her testimony showed that for years he was quarreling with his relatives and making fearful threats against their lives. When his anger was flamed Mina Taylor, Willie Lee's Sweetheart is one of the most interested witnesses at the trial of Lee on the triple murder charge. She is tall and mediumly, pretty, but not attractive. She wears a blue hat with a few white and blue feathers in a dark coat suit

with a white shirt waist. She stood behind the railing during Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning, just where she could look at Lee without being seen by him. However, she did not appear to take any more interest in him than other witnesses in the court room. She looked toward him when his name was mentioned by attorneys. She is to be one of the witnesses for the defense, but

the state expects to get valuable admissions from her. After Lee's arrest and confession, she announced that she was glad she did not marry him. She shows no trace of disappointed love or broken heart. She speaks to her companions from Newburgh rarely and strikes one as a quiet, sensible girl of a modest disposition. Mina Taylor was called to the stand Thursday afternoon. Lee watched her closely. She said

she had known him about five years. She said he was at her home the evening before the murder, and they drove to Newburgh. They went to a rank for the marriage, she said. She said. He arranged for her to select furniture in Boonville. The next day he was to accompany her back to Newburgh for the marriage. He had a revolver. He told her he was financially able to be married. He did not tell her how much money he had a week before, he said he had one hundred dollars, some at home and some at the

Citizens Bank at Newburgh. They were to be married by Reverend Williams. He saw the minister, she said. The girl said she had kept company with Lee for three years, and that she was now past seventeen. Willie Lee reflects some strange quality in his face. He is either scared, remorseful, or conscience stricken. He is not indifferent, as some reporters have said. He is deeply concerned. While there is not so much show of it as he faces his peers, he shows it in every inch of his care lined face,

every splotch of his pallid features. He appeared to be immovably weighted down with the brain burden and heart sorrow. Willie Lee may not have ever known remorse since the commission of his triple crime. The state says, he is not that kind of boy, but the sort who regards only himself as all important. They say that Willie Lee never mixed love, veneration, energy, and goodness in the crucible of his life. He was always a wayward, stubborn, parrin

hating boy, the state says. And above all things, Willie Lee admired girls and was a free spender. But the money that he spent was the money that his father swept for, and his mother surreptitiously slipped him for fear of him. The state says. The feeling in the courtroom, which the lawyers call the atmosphere, is against Lee. He has no sympathizers. Once Wednesday, an old woman veiled in black approached him and said, God, have mercy on your soul,

my boy. Then, for the first time, Willie Lee cried and choked. The stoical look came back to his face again soon, and it did not change. While Prosecutor Davis riddled him in his opening statement reviewing the heinous acts he alleged would be proven against Lee. January twenty seventh, nineteen twelve, the hardheartedness of Willie Lee was evinced Friday afternoon, when his attorney, Tom Lindsay made the opening statement in

his behalf for thirty minutes. The attorney told of the goodness of Lee's mother, of the kindness of his father, and the brotherly love of his brother. He said that they had almost idolized Willie Lee in his boyhood, and that he repaid their love with suspicions that he was being mistreated. The contrast was drawn to show the character of his mind to infer an insane tendency. But as overpowering as it was, Willie Lee never lost his iron nerve.

He sat like a wooden Indian while his relatives dried their eyes. As the trial goes on, the suspicion that Willie Lee has none of the kinder passions of humanity is strengthened. If he has any fear, remorse, or pity within him, he is too strong willed to betray it. The jostling, jamming, and crowding at the Lee trial Saturday afternoon was fierce, and during the confusion a large glass door was broken, the crash being heard in all parts

of the large structure and along nearby streets. Immediately after the crash, a large crowd flocked to the courthouse thinking something of an extraordinary nature had occurred. On the stands Saturday afternoon, Willie Lee admitted that he had killed his parents and brother, but said it was all like a dream. He admitted that he made the confessions, but said he felt like he was in a dream at the time. He denied nothing except the immaterial points which were not

made clear. His testimony was a bomb in the camp of the state's attorneys. They expected him to deny everything. The result of it is in doubt. It struck many of the people who hurt him as being more damaging than the written confessions. Willie Lee was cool and self possessed. When he talked, he did not show emotion. His mannerism seemed to have a decided effect upon the jurors. His own admissions seemed to shock some of them. Willie Lee

said he was twenty two on November twentieth. He said he had typhoid pneumonia when he was a boy and had to stop going to school and was left with pains in his head. He said that he had no disputes and no trouble with his father. He said that it seemed to his mind that his folks were against him, that he frequently had pains in the head and often awoke in the night with them. He named the physicians who attended him while he suffered with pains in the head.

He told of frequent dizziness. He told of the tender care his mother took of him when he was sick. He said he had had an injury that approached a rupture. He said he met Mina Taylor five or six years ago at the home of his married brother, now dead. He said that his mother gave him one hundred dollars of the money for which she sold the house. He said that he had given her the money prior to that time, and she promised to give him one hundred dollars when she sold the house. He told of putting

the one hundred dollars in the Newburgh Bank. With the testimony of Willie Lee and his own defense, the defense will conclude its evidence Saturday afternoon. The plea of insanity was not well borne up by the evidence. At least five of the defendants insanity witnesses declared frankly that they believed him sane, One or two said they did not know, and one woman said she thought he was not right.

There has not been any preponderance of evidence to show insanity, and every time counsel for the defense has gotten a halfway admission of insanity, the state's attorneys have smashed it. It is the opinion of disinterested attorneys that the plea of insanity will not hold water. It has been so far a losing fight, apparently for the defendant, because of the flimsy evidence to support any kind of plea that

might have been advanced. The insanity plea was judged by his attorneys to be his strongest fortification, and that is going glimmering with proof by the state that all the insanity in his family took place after serious accidents. Josephine Jones, a nurse, was the defense's first witness Saturday morning. She became acquainted with Willie Lee at Newburgh when he was ten years old, and she lived in the flat over the residence of the Lea. She was intimately acquainted with

the family. She said Lee didn't believe the earth revolved around the sun, that if it did, it would be impossible for people to stand on their feet when the world was upside down. Willie Lee would cry, she said, for hours after he had been chastised. She said Willie Lee did not believe in religion and remarked that the Bible sounded to him like a novel. Willie Lee and his mother seemed devoted and often walked hand in hand.

Richard Lee she characterized as a good, ignorant man. The witness told of the accidental death of missus Lee's brother, saying missus Lee said she didn't care so much, as she had never liked him anyhow. Threats that missus Lee made to commit suicide were recalled by the witness. She said missus Lee often told her husband when he came home that he might find her dead. She said she didn't believe Willie Lee was mentally sound, that his mother was not sound in mind, and that Lee's father was

mentally weak. The state forced the witness to admit that she lived over the Lee residence without fear of harm, and she finally admitted that they might not have been crazy, but just not bright. She talked with missus Lee three weeks before her death, and the latter made the remark that her boys were good. Missus Lee, she said, never said anything to her about Willie Lee being insane. She made a poor witness. Prosecutor Davis tore her testimony into tatters.

One of the props of Willie Lee's insanity defense was smashed to smithereens Friday afternoon by the state. Homer Sutton, a step uncle of Lee, was put on the stand by the He is the husband of Lee's aunt, a sister to his mother. Missus Sutton was the wife of Joe Lee, now dead, and Joe Lee was a brother of Willie Lee's father. The two Lee brothers, Joe and Richard,

married sisters. Later, Joe Lee's widow married Sutton. Sutton testified that Edward L. Lee, a cousin of the accused, is insane, and at his house he told of having him in jail four years for insanity. The defense tried to prove insanity in the family by him, but the defense got a surprise by one question. Prosecutor Or A. Lee blowed up the witness quote, didn't Edward Lee fall in an open fire about four years ago and strike his head on an iron bar of the grate and wasn't as insanity? Noticed?

After this unquote, Sutton admitted that such was the case. The victory was the biggest score of the trial for the state's attorneys January twenty ninth, nineteen twelve. Willie Lee, accused of killing his father, mother, and brother, slipped into abated traps set by the state's attorneys Monday when he told the minutest detail of every incident that happened the week of the murder of his parents and brother. Discreetly, Prosecutor Davis led him to every incident up to the murders.

Then he jumped to what followed the murders, and Lee described accurately all that happened and what certain individuals wore. Then, triumphantly, the state's attorney pounced upon him. He asked him about the murders, and Willie Lee never denied committing them, but said it was all like a dream. Why should he remember such trifles before and after and let the biggest criminal events in his life slip? His memory was put to him, and he failed to make any kind of

a satisfactory explanation. He left the stand at ten fifty five, having made a damaging witness. In his own behalf, he could remember what sheriff's scales and Prosecutor Davis drank during the trip to Jeffersonville and how much they drank two whiskeys apiece a bottle of beer each split a half, and then consumed a pine of whiskey in the auto. He could remember that he drank an oyster cocktail, but

the details of the murder he could not remember. He was asked if he did not tell Gurley Sutton the day after the murders that he had killed the whole damn family and then walked out to the Big Four mine and returned to the house with a plan to burn the house and consume the bodies again. He said his mind was not clear about it, but he would not say he had not said it. If I did do it, I do not know, oh, he said evasively.

The state is trying to fix upon Willie Lee as cold blooded case of murder as it is possible to establish. The defense is quibbling with immaterial things. No big card that might mitigate Willy Lee's crime has been played by the defense. His attorneys have a whimsical claim to insanity and that's about all. Although the state has shown that Edward Lee did not become insane until he fell into a fire and struck his head on an iron bar.

The defense introduced two records of insanity inquests. Monday, after Willie Lee had been taken off the stand, Uncle wash Lee, apparently eighty, was put on the stand to show that John Lee and Simon Lee, distant relatives of Willie Lee, had been insane. He said that Simon Lee had once

killed a man, the name was not brought out. He said that he had heard that John Lee slept with a butcher knife under his pillow, But the state's attorneys showed that John Lee was not insane until after he had been sick with typhoid fever, and forced the acknowledgment that Simon Lee was a cripple and excessively hot headed, but he was a normal man when he was not made angry. The state's attorneys overlooked a material point by failing to ask Willie Lee how he expected to buy

a marriage license and pay the preacher. He testified he had only two dollars and five cents the night of the murder and was to be married the next day. Prosecutor Davis objected to the entrance of the insanity records in the trial, citing a court opinion that such inquests were no more important than an affidavit Judge Spencer overruled the motion. The cross questioning of Willie Lee, charged with

triple murder, began with the opening of court Monday. The prisoner was calm when Prosecutor Davis began to cross fire questions at him. He showed a remarkable memory by giving the names of many of his schoolmates, which, in the light of the bad memory of details around the crime, looked rather bad for him. He recalled also all the names of the doctors who treated him in his lifetime. He admitted that he voluntarily left the courthouse and went

down to the morgue to see his folks. This was brought out to show that he was not in fear of mob violence, as he had said Saturday when he stated his confessions were obtained through fear. Lee said he wouldn't say if he did or did not say en Root from Jeffersonville that his last confessions were true. He

said he didn't remember. He recalled the persons who were present. However, when the conversation took place, he was asked if he offered to show Sheriff Scales and Prosecutor Davis how the murders were committed, if they would take him down to the house. He said he might have said it and would not say he did say it. Lee was asked if he did not tell Scales the same day that he killed his folks because they were so mean to him. He replied that he did not think so, but he

could not say positively that he did not. Lee hesitated at times and made the prosecutor repeat questions. He admitted the first confession and said he thought by making it he would get out of trouble and get away from the mob. The murderer was forced to admit that he is doing all he can now to get out of trouble. Lee told of the crowd that surrounded the jail when he had his picture taken. He said he heard people say he ought to be mobbed. He said he was not able to work, but was able to see a

sweetheart frequently, and thought he was able to marry. He said his mother kept him some applied with money. He testified that he had only two dollars on the evening of the murder. He was asked if he told the coroner the day of the murder that he had one hundred dollars in the bank. He said he diad but admitted he lied, quote, I told the coroner that because I was afraid of the mob, unquote, the same mob you went through to the morgue without fear. The prosecutor questioned,

scoring a point against Lee's veracity. Lee said he had a pain in his head and was dizzy when he was on the witness stand Saturday. He was asked if he had the pain in the head while in the jail before the trial, and was asked why he did not call for a headache tablets before last Thursday, after the trial started. He could not explain this. It was brought out that he had taken only four headache tablets

since his imprisonment. Lee was forced to admit that he had exhausted at his bank account on August twenty fourth. He said he fixed the date for his marriage in June nineteen eleven, and that his mother sold her house after that and gave him one hundred dollars. He refused to admit that his mother had given him the money to get married on He did not deny that he spent the money foolishly, despite the fact that the date

for his marriage was approaching. He was asked if the weather was hot on the night of the murders, He answered, you know how hot it is in August, and he smiled slightly. Willie Lee got confused when he was questioned about the murders. He said, I went home, went through the room in which the folks slept, and struck a match. Question did you see your folks in the room? Answer no,

I do not remember seeing any of them. Question but you do remember you struck a match and got a drink, but do not remember of seeing any of your folks? Answer no, sir. Question what did you do then? Answer? I went into my room and went to bed. Lee remembered well enough all of the events taking place after the murders. Several times he caught himself about to say something and changed his words. He said, just as the piece. Eckstein and Marshal Levi Scales told him that he would

be protected if he confessed his memory lapsed. When he was asked if he could remember the positions in which the bodies lay at the morgue, Lee was able to tell the minutest detail of his trip to Evansville in an auto, even to the clothes the officers wore and the route the auto took. He said he felt uneasy when the auto left the Boonville jail. Quote, Sheriff Davis told me when we got here that I must make

a true statement to protect myself unquote. Then Lee said he wrote the second confession while he was alone in his cell. He acknowledged writing it and acknowledged the signature. He failed to remember again certain incriminating evidence, but remembered clearly the smallest details of the trip to Princeton, detailing the position of the officers in the auto. He denied that the third confession, secured by Detective Howland, was read

to him. He was forced to admit that he did not object to signing the confession and did not ask that it be read over. Quote. Now you have told me everything that occurred between Sunday morning before the murder and the time you were taken to Jeffersonville, haven't you, Prosecutor Davis asked yes, Lee answered not foreseeing the trap, the prosecutor quized triumphantly, then you remember distinctly everything that

took place that week except the murders. Here, Lee saw that he had stepped into a snare and made efforts to back out of his position. He fell back on the excuse that he didn't understand. Lee was asked why he said oh hell to his mother one day. Oh that was my byword, he explained. He recalled that he had gone to wear his father work Tuesday before the murder. He said his father did not cry and he did not call him out. He failed to recall what he

had told the coroner about the revolver. What he did tell the coroner was that he had given the revolver to his father two weeks before, but Mina Taylor, his sweetheart, said he'd had it the night of the murder. Enjoy ad free listening at the Safehouse dubbadubadubba dot Patreon dot com.

and shook it. He smiled Willie Lee was found guilty today of the murder of his parents, Richard and Emma Lee, and his brother Clarence Lee, and was sentenced to life imprisonment. The murder occurred August twenty fourth. The jury considered his youth. Lee smiled faintly when the verdict was returned, as though he appreciated the fact that he had not been sentenced to the gallows. Lee's attorneys are satisfied and will ask

for a new trial. They offered to plead guilty and take life imprisonment before the trial started, but the state's attorneys refused to let him. Willie Lee's triple murder is the arch crime of criminology in Indiana in the last decade. It overreaches all others because Willie Lee finally beat to death with an axe as she slept the mother who bore him, nurtured him, and loved him, despite the ungratefulness

he returned for her sacrifices. Because he brained with that same axe the father who had loved him and sought to make him an honest, industrious boy. Because he killed the brother who was his companion and his playmate in times of boyhood and in times of youth. The crime is made greater in the light of circumstances brought out at the trial, showing that Willie Lee placed the love of the girl he wanted to marry the next day over the lives of his nearest relatives and killed them

to get money on which to marry Mina Taylor. The murders took place in Boonville in the early morning of August twenty fourth. Willie Lee had returned home from the tailor home where he had been with his sweetheart. Lee's mother asked him what time it was, and then asked him what he intended to do the following day. He said he intended to get married. She told him that he must not marry, but that he should stay home

with her. A violent quarrel followed between Willie Lee and other members of the family, and as he went into his own room to go to bed, he saw an axe in the sleeping room in which his father, mother, and brother were sleeping. Willie Lee was restless. He slept fitfully in the night. He heard his father get up and stir then all was quiet again. Thinking his father had lain down again, he got up, crept stealthily into the room grabbed the axe and struck where he thought

his father was lying. It felt to Willie Lee like he was hitting a pillow, and he knew he had struck his mother. But he struck twice again. Then he turned and struck his sleeping brother. He hit him two licks, and the brother rose and staggered, falling with his hands against the wall. Willie Lee struck him again and he fell to death. Then the aged father, Richard Lee, returned from the kitchen, where he had gone to get a drink. He rushed at Willie Lee, and the sun brained him

with the axe. To wipe out the evidences of murder, Willie Lee emptied the coal oil can's contents on the bed, took the oil from a night lamp and scattered that about, and then set fire to the bed upon which his father had fallen. This done, the slayer went into the kitchen, washed his hands of the blood of his slain parents, and went to his own room and put on a clean shirt. His own bloody shirt was put on the bloody bed to be burned. When he thought the fire

had gained headway enough to be raging beyond control. When the neighbors and fire department could arrive. He went out and gave the alarm and hypocritically wrung his hands and said, oh, my poor parents, and unconcernedly smoked cigarettes. The fire was put out, the horribly mutilated bodies were placed on the lawn, and it was seen that a foul murder had been done.

The unerring finger of guilt pointed at Willie Lee. He was accused of the murder, and he merely inquired if people thought he would have the nerve to kill his parents. This remark cast suspicion more strongly upon him. His arrest followed. He faced the coroner's jury and told a jumbled story of having been awakened by a noise and rolling over and going back to sleep, then awakening when the smoke

was suffocating him. The next day he was talked to by Sheriff Raymond Scales of Boonville, and partly broken down. He said he had killed his father after his father had killed his mother and brother and was attempting to kill him. He had taken the axe from his father, he said, and struck him with it. This was the opening wedge. The same night he was brought to Evansville so that Sheriff John J. Davis, an old detective and past master of questioning in third degrees, could get a

true confession from him. Davis let Lee alone that night. The next day he saw him and talked with him about his confession to Sheriff Scales. He told Lee he did not believe that confession and pointed out to him the flaws in it, the gaps that made him out the murderer of the three. Sheriff Davis then got a complete and true confess from Willie Lee. He left paper with him and told him to write it out. Detective John Hoagland was called in and asked to go to

Lee's cell with Davis. Then Willie Lee handed them the confession through the bars was read carefully. Davis saw it was not signed and handed it back to Willie Lee to sign. This was done. Sheriff Scales was then called Willie Lee asking for him, saying he wanted to tell him that the first confession was not a true confession. When Scales came to Evansville from Boonville, Willie Lee was placed in an autobobile and Scales and Detective John Hoagland

started with him for Jeffersonville. They stopped at Princeton, and at the Princeton jail got a confession containing more details. It was taken by a stenographer. At Princeton, Willie Lee was asked how certain marks were made upon the back of his brother and father. He told Detective Hogland to take an axe out in the yard and strike a block of wood with it a certain way, and he

would see how these same marks could be made. Lee was asked if he struck with his right or left hand, and he boastfully answered that he was a master of the axe with either hand. From Princeton, Willie Lee was taken to Jeffersonville for safe keeping. Mob talk was rife around Boonville. He remained in the Jeffersonville prison until December second, when he was taken to Boonville and attorneys were appointed

to defend him. He was granted a change of venue to Vandenburg County and brought to the Evansville jail two weeks ago. The trial started last Tuesday. A plea of insanity was made by the defense. The plea was not borne out by any of the evidence. Even witnesses called to testify to his insanity testified that he was sane all through the trial, Lee seemed to be unconcerned about his position. His eyes always glowed when he entered the courtroom and saw the hundreds of eyes focused upon him.

He seemed to think he was viewed as very brave and never seemed to recognize that it was the abnormal in him that attracted the crowds. Lee's sweetheart, Mina Taylor, watched him incessantly while he testified. However, she never reflected any love or admiration in his glances. Willie Lee never denied anything on the stand. He said that he might have murdered his parents and brother, but didn't believe he did anyway, It all seemed like a dream to him.

He admitted making the confessions and said it seemed like a dream when he was making them. The crowds attending the trial were the largest ever gathered in the circuit courtroom. The sheriff was ordered to take the murder back to the jail, and the crowd followed behind him. He was taken out the rear door behind the judge's bench and out the Fourth Street entrance. No threatening move was made

by the disappointed crowd. The trial of Willie Lee for the murder of his parents might have never occurred had he withheld his confessions of guilt. The state was without material evidence to convict him. Without the confessions. Had Willy Lee told one story after his arrest, declaring that the murders had been committed and the house was a fire when he awoke and stuck to his story despite all inducements to confess, he might now be a free man.

There was some circumstantial evidence against him, but not enough of it to convict, and his own story clung to tenaciously probably would have overtoppled this. He could have framed up a plausible story regarding his bloodstained shirt found in the room where the slaughter was committed, but Willie's crime was too big to be confined in the brain cells of a human. Had he withheld confessions, he probably would have gone insane. He would have dragged him down mentally

strong as he is, and fearlessness and braggadoccio. The attorneys for the state frankly confessed that they had nothing that would have been material against Willie Lee without his confessions. True quarrels might have been proven, but nobody saw the blows struck. Nobody saw Willie Lee set the house afire, and had he been cunning enough, he might have obliterated even the less important material evidence the state did get. Mina Taylor has been a constant attendant at the trial

and one of the state's most important witnesses. The thought that she might now be Willie Lee's wife but for his confession of guilt does not seem to occur to her. She has no marks of regret of having lost him. Like her father, she is tall, slight, and apparently unsophisticated. She looks upon the court procedure as if she did not understand all that was transpiring. At times her eyes had a dreamy, far away look, never a look, however,

of the slightest concern in Willie Lee's welfare. She does not appear to dwell reflectively in the land of might have been. She is not given to retrospections to any great degree. The first day she glanced at the prisoner only occasionally. On the day that he testified, she watched him closely, as indifferently as others in the court room observed him. Her face betrayed no emotions of her finer feelings of the heart. By looking at her, one could

tell she was Willie Lee's intended bride. By her cool, calm and proper conduct at the trial, she has called speculation regarding her feelings. There are some who believe that when Willie Lee confessed that he had killed his people, her love vanished completely, that she saw the sensible side of her affairs and appreciated the fact that she had come to know the more desperate side of the man

before she married him. Withel Mina Taylor impresses one as a sensible country girl who might overlook small faults in her lover, and who could cast him out and forget him for graver Ones, February one, nineteen twelve. The hisses that greeted the jury's verdict in the Willie Lee case Wednesday night were followed with rumblings of discontent Thursday. Averse opinions were everywhere expressed upon the streets of Evansville. The opinion prevails that the jurors feared to give the death penalty,

though realizing it was merited. The jurors heard words of dissatisfaction when they reached their homes, and friends censored them Thursday for passing a sentence of life imprisonment upon one who had foully killed his mother, father, and brother. What kind of crime must one commit to be hanged? Was the substance of questions asked upon the street, in the courthouse, and everywhere. The verdict is the principal topic of conversation. Nobody appears to think that it gives Lee as just penalty.

A death sentence was expected, and when the jurors, evidently heeding attorney Tom Lindsey's threat that they would not rest if they gave it, returned the life imprisonment penalty. Disappointment was visible on the face of every onlooker in the courtroom except Lee and his attorneys. Three jurors favored hanging, but were won over to the life sentence. The other

nine jurors did not vote for the death penalty. At any time on the street Wednesday night, the excitement over the verdict and the disappointment was so high that it would not have required much agitation to have worked up a mob's spirit. Indignation was also rife in Boonville over the outcome of the Lee case. There was hardly a man or woman in Boonville who did not look for the jury at Evansville to find Lee guilty of murder in the first degree and fix the penalty at death.

The crime was a blot on the state of Indiana and a terrible blot on the city of Boonville, and it was hoped that, in a way to erase the terrible effect of this crime, the jury that tried the murder would give him the extreme penalty. Epilogue. Willie Lee served out his entire life sentence, but it only lasted two and a half years. He died of tubercular meningitis in the Indiana State Penitentiary in Michigan City, September thirteenth,

nineteen fourteen. That was a bloody family bed. The Triple Confessions of Willie Lee, called from the historic pages of the Evansville Press and other newspapers of the era. True Crime Historian is a creation of popular media. Opening theme by Nico Vitessi, incidental music by Dave SAMs, closing theme by Dave Sam's and Rachel Shott, engineered by David hih at Third Street Music. Media management by Sean Miller Jones. And as for me now, I've been working on my

new bio. His life so far was poorly spent. Pleasure was his goal. I'm true crime historian Richard O. Jones signing off for now