PHOTO
CAPTION: ARRESTED— Detroit police are holding this woman, identified as Muriel
Wrightman, 23, for investigation in the death of her 10-week-old niece in
Algonac, Mich.
FULL
TEXT: Port Huron, Mich., March 30. — A 23-year-old unmarried, mother was held in
St. Clair County jail Saturday night after confessing she strangled her
10-week-old niece last December in a fit of jealousy .because the child “was
prettier than my own baby.” Muriel Wrightman, Algonac, Mich., was brought here
from Detroit, where she surrendered to police and admitted the slaying. She
told. authorities it had been “preying on my mind.”
County
Sheriff Ferris, E. Lucas said the woman was not married.
It
was the second announced confession of a child slaying in Michigan in three
days. In Detroit earlier police said Mrs. Jeannette Grosso, 36, had admitted
beating to death, her four-year-old niece, Anna Lee Ratcliff.
~ Reads of Tragedy ~
Mrs.
Wrightman said her decision to surrender came in a pang of conscience after
reading accounts of Mrs. Grosso’s announced confession.
Her niece,
Shirley Ann Little, was found dead in her crib at Algonac last December with a
corner of a blanket stuffed in her mouth. Death at the time was attributed to
accidental suffocation.
~
Becomes Jealous ~
The
baby had been left in Miss Wrightman’s care by her sister, Mrs. Phyllis Little,
19, Miss Wrightman’s child is two-year-old Victoria Ann.
“I got tired of the baby and of hearing about how much
prettier she was than Victoria Ann,” Miss Wrightman told police, “I got
jealous, I guess.”
[“Strangles
Baby Prettier Than Her Own,” syndicated (AP), The San Antonio Express (Tx.),
Mar. 31, 1956, p. 1]
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[1209-8/20/21]
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