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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 21, 1920)
THE' OREGON SUNDAY JOURNAL, yORTLAND, SUNDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 21, 1920. . V;- : S3-" "' X"-- .. , V' I -'Kg; - " - yj. ' vy,, yyf v.L.y :v-- -A.: '' -'v- .y 'f '.': v.4tfv.-M.y-. 'i.- x' '-v '. '' : '''' : 1 ' " 4s'f . " ' - 1 v ,.'.- ' r J- ui ' t : - k !: " . ... f.j ' - - ' f u - r - - ' i 1 ' 4 - K t - , : 'x ; '-- 't V.f iuVV:- And Scene at the Foot of the Ladder Where Dogs Tried to Follow th ' ,J c. D . fe . lt y C-'v-'V Footprints of the Kidnappers. . V Life Size Portrait of August Pasquale. M: TTTTHEnE is little Blakely Coughlin. ' v ! - Pasquale, Who Pretends to Be Demented arid Has Blocked Every Effort of the Detectives (to Unravel the Mystery, Insists That the GhUd Is Dead--- But Is Little Blakely Alive and in Hiding With the Woman Whose Footprints Were Found Under the Ladder? The ConfessionWhich Mrs. Coughlin Does Not Believe. . GENTLEMEN? light out they went to another room. . Around the last part of April, xgao, I had a room I went on my way because I had no intention of te the back part of the house on the first floor at No. kidnapping any one; but it came to my mind later 808 North Ninth street, Philadelphia, for three that it would be a good way to make some money by weeks. During that time'I learned that the landlady stealing that boy, then get some ransom from his was carrying a big roll of money with her all the parents. '' time. So before I moved from that house. I had a So, a few nights later I went to carry out wha pass key to open her room door. Then I went to I had on my minder took the car in Philadel room at No. 323 North Seventh street. r where I was living.jand when I got a mile or so from! Then about a week later I came back to No. 808 the house I got ofand walked the rest of the wayj North Ninth street and went and hid myself in a When I got to the place where I had seen the boyl : there were still lig ing for an hour or clothes closet in the landlady's room. That was about 8 o'cldck in the evening, and at jo the landlady went to bed. Between 10:30 and xr o'clock I came out of the closet, but in coming out I made a little noise because I had to force the door open and that -woke the woman. . : She sat up in bed and was just going to call for help when I bit her with a piece of lead that was in the closet. Then I took her roll that was on top of a dresser and went out. I didn't mean to kill her, but I did it just the same. One night in the last part of May xgao, I came to Norristown from Philadelphia with the intention of raiding the telephone pay station on both the rail road and the elevated station over in Bridgeport, PaT"I missed the last car going back, so I made up my mind to walk as far as the city ine, because I didn't want to stop in Norristown over night. As I got a little way outside . of Norristown I liaril a habv crvine and saw a lighf in a house on my left 'so I went to look arouniMhe house and found . right, so, thinking that maybe they were going t the stepladder. Putting one on topot the otner 1 toiiow me, 1 tooK mat roaa, ana atter going tor about j Am with a babv on her Jap, sitting a quarter of a mile I stopped to listen. But I didni COU1U SEE nvm s' - ,f hts in the house. But after wait4 so the light went out, so I went to a new house they were building next door and got a carpenter's ladder and a coat that was in the ncv building and carried it to where the boy' was. j Setting the ladder against the house, I. put tha old coat on me and pushing the screen up I went intd the baby's room, I took the baby's milk bottle heater down on the ground, setting it on my left as I was facing the house, j Then I went back up and in the room and turn ing the bed cover I wrapped the baby up with th coat. . j - '; J As I picked him up he gave a little cry, so I went right out of the window and after I got out I heard someone talking, so I thought the baby's little cr had awakened his! parents and forgetting the hojt water heater I started to run down the road toward Philadelphia. " , 1 " After going for about half a mile I got to a country roaa tnat iea our irom tne main roaa to m down in the baby's room. Then I saw a mancome into where the woman and the baby were from another room. Then they put the baby to bed and turning the who was enatched from hla crib on the night of June In the nursery adjoining his parents! warm 1 last. room 'i Pas- In their country residence in Norrlstowa, Pa., a suburb of Philadelphia-2 jr n Dead the local and State police prosecuting attorney feel Bure. "I murdered the ;baby,"s August quale, the prisoner In the Norristowii jail. confessed. i. ::. .,:. ty And yet, in spite of what the confessed kidnapper has said, Mrs, Coughlin, the 4 mother of the thirteen-months-old chUd, topes to regain her little one again. ." "I do not believe Pasquale smothered my '.. taby. He has pTOved to be A liar so many times that I will not believe what hi says, until" the cbild or his hody is foundj" she . eaid on reading the confession. t 1 ' ' The full confession of Pasquale is printed elsewbere on this page. There Is truth in it, but some of it is not true. Is thei baby still alive and in theands of Pasquale's friends or accomplices?. This is possible; If little Blakely Is alive, why should Pas ? quale pretend,that he killed him? j i , Pasquale is a rather unusual person. vThe police are not quite sure whether he Js a half-witted brute or a very cunning crlmlnal. ; ... f. ; r It will be noticed that Pasquale in his 'confession roluntarily claims that he mur Idered the landlady in nis Philadelphia ihome a few weeks before he kidnapped the ICoughlin baby. But the police nave inves tigated this boasted murder and know that he is lying about; it -the old woman was not killed in the way he says and Pasquale did not kill her. j Why did Pasquale confess to this mur-w der "Which he did not commit? i f It was for the purpose ' ot having the police look up his statements about the old woman and prove they "were not true,, they think. Nobody boasts of a murder he was innocent of except a crazy man. If Pasquale claims to be the hero of one cold-. blooded crime which it is certain e did not commit, ; then, perhaps, he is lying about the Coughlin kidnapping awl fiaurder. It will be argued. Such confessions would " confuse a Jury and lay a foundation for Pasquale's lawyers to Insist that any man who would boast of murders he' did not do must be insane. Did Pasquale from the very' beginning start In to play the part of an irresponsible lunatio? In his letters to, the -distracted parents the man always signed himself "The Crank." Bnt his negotiations were' carried, out with great shrewdness. So resourceful and adroit were his dealings with Mr. Coughlin that he wheedled out of him. 112,000 ransom and got the money without being caught, nor did he return the child. mile the Stale and the local police, tele phone operators, post office employes and, the whole, neighborhood were alert, this ' -'"-"..'- .i-'.v : man Pasquale was clever enough to keep up an almost dally communication, with the Coughlins by mail, by newspaper ad vertisements, and even over the telephone. When. Mr. Coughlin insisted 'upon proof that his mysterious negotiator was really the person who kidnapped the child; Pas quale replied that it was too dangerous to have the "baby's photograph taken and that all the clothiirg that the child wore on the night of the kidnappers had been destroyed. possible stories, pretended to try to kill himself, confessed to things one day and denied them the next, and kept the detec tives running about on wild goose chases. With circumstantial detail Pasquale ex plained just where he had buried the Child's little body on his farm at Egg Har bor City and the detectives took him along with them and dug up every spot the man Indicated. Next came the confession that he had tied a cord and a piece of rail- $ut asproof of the .genuineness of his' road rail to the body and thrown it into claims the man wrote a remarkable letter, giving an intimate description of baby Blakely's room. He told how and where he had obtained the ladder, and as a cir cumstantial detail mentioned that one end of the ladder he -had rented against a little flower pot on the lawn to keep it from slipping. He "reminded Mr.- Coughlin that the water container for heating the baby's milk was only half full on the night of June 1. . Very few kidnappers have been shrewd enough to carry on negotiations and secure their ransom money without- being trapped. Pasquale did this successfully, and perhaps etill has the child somewhere In hiding. His greed, which prompted htm to get still more money from Mr. Coughlin, landed him in the hands of the police. On his sec ond attempt last. August, when he demand ed $6,000 more, they caught him. At once Pasquale began to act like an Irresponsible man. He told all sorts of lm-:, (C) 1820. International Feature Serrice. Inc. 4 the Schuylkill Elver not far from the child's home. Which story is true or whether both are false and whether Blakely Cough lin is still alive are questions which can not be answered with certainty. Pasquale has given two very different explanations ot why he entered the Cough lin house. At first he asserted that rob bery was his only purpose and that he had no idea ot stealing the child. But as be climbed the ladder and stepped into the room he i waked np the little one and it uttered a cry. Then it was that he sud denly realized that the infant was more valuable than any. other booty he was likely to find in the house, and lifting it out of its warm crib he hurried away with the little Blakely. , In the last confession, which is printed In full elsewhere on this page, Pasquale states that he was prowling abroad one night, intending to rob railroad and ele vated stations in the suburbs of Philadel phia, when he saw a light in a house, and Great Britain KifhU Beaerred. hear any one, so I sat down a while to look at thsa baby, and so I threw the coat aside. His head fell . . i r . t 1 v m ... . -fl DaCK ana x louna mar. ne was aeaa. x Kiuea mm by holding him too tight around my breast a little top long. . T . So, notlcnpwing what to do with hfm then, I toojc him down to the river, because I didn't want to put him in the ground because ! didn't want the dirt and worms to touch him. So I took him to the river anil sat there by the track with the boy on my lap until I saw daylight coming. v . j Then, not daring to hold him any longer, I tied him with a string that I found on a. wagon in thje stone quarry nearby to a piece of rail that was stolen also in the quarry. Then I, threw him in the river. . After that I went home 'and wrote my first letter to the boy's parents in Philadelphia. j Then I came back to Norristown to learn from the paper or someone that knew the name and ad , dress of the boy's parents so as I could mail the let ter. I had to wait for the paper to come out, and when it did come out I went inTa saloon across frorh ' y the railroad station and wrote down the address and mailed the letter. j After that I was writings to the boy's parents as often as I could, whenever I was reading in the paper , that they were worrying much, telling them hot ti ivorry about the child, that he was well and alive, just to keep them irom worrying too much. And I to get money for killing their child jl can't find a name strong enough for myself. j Now I am not tryingrto save myself, because t was I that killed the boy, but by pure accident did l kill him by holding him too tight against my breast, and had his face against me that he couldn't breathy. My intention was to go over to Swedeland and get a room for me and the boy. I have over $300, and that was eoine to keen us eoine for a while until ing it over he was Ifg j couW see jf njs parent was going to pay something;. , pressed with the faft, If they were goinrto pay I was going to leave that it would be an him in the .elevated station in Bridgeport and call asy way 10 mase money by stealing the child and holding It - for ransom. Which is the true story? . The police regard ifc. as of very great im portance to make certain just what was r': ' the man's purpose that night . If Pasquale told the truth in his first statement, when he said he came to rob the house without any intentlon of kidnap - Ing the child then the police reconstruct the picture of what happened, and are convinced that little Blakely Coughlin was dead before he left his room. The police are inclined to believe that Pasquale came as a' burglar and did not know there was creepteg up on a step ladder peered into the lighted room and watched . a w o m a putting her baby sleep. At that tin) the idea of kidna Ding had n e & entered nis neaa, n asserts. But thin them up on the phone and tell them where to go tp get him. '. And if they didn't pay I was going to turpi him back to them the same, because I had no inten tion to do him any harm, and I didn't intend to keep him. If I could get the money or not the boy wouBd have been returned just th'e same, but I am his mur derer. Ikilledhim. j AUGUST PASQUALE. a child in the room, and when his prowl lags awoke the little one and it uttered fa cry he seized it and strangled It and hur ried away with the dead body in bis amis. If Pasquale came to the house with ja kidnapping scheme planned out it is highly unlikely, the police insist, that he would have accidentally suffocated the child Sy wrapping it or hugging it too tigntiy. (Continued on Vext Page). T
