THE' OREGON SUNDAY JOURNAL, yORTLAND, SUNDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 21, 1920.
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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).
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