FULL TEXT (Article 1 of 3): Toronto, Ont., May 21.— Josephine Carr, a
thirteen-year-old girl, has confessed to the murder of William Murray, a
9-months old infant.
It is alleged that the girl has been in the habit of
stealing baby carriages from the front of a department store while the parents
were inside shopping. The police have recovered several of these carriages,
which had been sold.
Last Friday the girl went to a department store and found a
baby in each carriage in front of the store. She picked out the best looking
baby carriage, which contained the Murray child, and made off with it. She took
the child to the woods near the city and stripped it of its clothing and threw
it over an embankment, causing its death.
Later she placed the body in a culvert and burned its
clothing. On Saturday she made the announcement that she had discovered the
child’s body in the culvert. When accused of the crime she made a confession.
The girl says the plan of killing the child was suggested to
her by a play she had seen at a theater.
[“Child Kills Infant. – Says Plan of Murder Suggested by
Play Seen at Theater.” The Salt Lake Tribune (Ut.), May 22, 1905, p. 2]
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FULL TEXT (Article 2 of 3): Toronto, Ont., Mny. 23. – Because she did not know what to do with the child she had stolen, 13-year-old Josephine Carr deliberately threw the 9-months’ old baby of Mr. and Mrs. William Murray over an eighty-eight-foot embank near the Grand Trunk track at the east end of the city. The body was recovered and the little girl confessed to the murder.
FULL TEXT (Article 2 of 3): Toronto, Ont., Mny. 23. – Because she did not know what to do with the child she had stolen, 13-year-old Josephine Carr deliberately threw the 9-months’ old baby of Mr. and Mrs. William Murray over an eighty-eight-foot embank near the Grand Trunk track at the east end of the city. The body was recovered and the little girl confessed to the murder.
The baby was left by the mother in a go-cart outside a
department store. Josephine along while the mother shopping, took the baby and
go-cart, and on a street car went to the suburbs near her own house.
“Then I got frightened,” she said. “I was afraid papa would
be mad, so I threw it over the embankment.”
Then the little murderess crawled down the steep embankment
and stripped the body of its clothes. The girl claimed that she got the plan
of killing the child from seeing a play
at a local theater.
[“Girl Murders Stolen Child,” - Throws It into Canal Because
She Did Not Know What to Do With It.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Il.), May 23,
1905, p. 3]
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FULL TEXT (Article 3 of 3): Toronto, May 23. – The wanton fiendishness of
Josephine Carr the 12 year old girl who has confessed to the murder of the
Murray baby is further revealed as a result of the post mortem. At the inquest
last evening Dr. John Caven, who performed the post mortem, testified that the baby
had been drowned. He stated that a found a comparatively large amount of sand
in the infant's mouth and gullet, and an examination of the stomach disclosed a
great quantity of wet sand and dirty water. This matter had been drawn into the
stomach when the poor little baby was struggling, swallowing and gasping for
breath in the mire in which the inhuman little girl had thrust it. Dr. Caven
declared that the infant must have been remarkably strong to have absorbed such
a quantity of water and and it is now apparent that Josephine Carr’s second
version of the tragedy is but little more reliable than the first story she
told with such a wealth of detail in regard to seeing a woman wheeling a baby
in a go-cart in the vicinity of the place in which the girl declared she
subsequently discovered the murdered infant. There seems to be a peculiar twist
in the child’s mental make-up which will not admit of her telling the truth
even in matters not affecting her interests. She is also possessed of a fertile
imagination supplemented by the reading of cheap, trashy novels.
Toronto, May 22 – In view of the startling facts revealed by
the post mortem, everything points to the conclusion that the baby, instead
being thrown over the embankment was carried down to the culvert, placed face
downward in the mire, and held there till life was extinct. The culvert in
which the body was found runs under the Grand Trunk railway tracks and is about
eight feet in diameter. There was just a little water trickling over the sand
in the centre of the culvert. The supposition is that the infant was drowned in
one of the several pools of water outside and afterwards carried in and
deposited in the centre of the culvert which would be fully twenty feet from
the entrance.
Some idea of the callous nerve of the girl may be gleaned
from this fact, which would have daunted a brave man. Imagine an 11 year old
girl in the dusk of evening, in one of the loneliest spots on the outskirts of
the city, carrying a dead, naked baby 29 feet into a dark [illeg.] culvert.
Arriving at the centre the infant was placed on its back as the impression in
the sand revealed. There was practically no running water at the spot where the
baby was found.
In respect to the marks on the baby’s body. [illeg.] Caven
testified testified that they were all of the superficial character, and had
probably been caused by the remains being rolled in the sand. There were no
bruises of a serious character, being at the most but slight skin abrasions.
It has been demonstrated that the baby’s clothing had been
removed before it was murdered.
The fair inference is that when Josephine Carr arrived at
the railway tracks with the baby she carefully carried it down the embankment
and divested it of its clothing with the exception of a little flannel
undershirt. Wet sand was freely imbedded in this garment, a result no doubt of
the baby’s struggles. There was also several black grease spots upon it,
resembling oil from the axles of a railway engine.
After undressing the baby it was done to death in the manner
revealed by the post mortem examined.
[“The Awful Crime of Little Josie Carr - Further
Investigation Shows That the Murder of Baby Murray was Coolly Carried Out With
Fiendish Ingenuity.” The Evening Journal (Ottawa, Canada), May 23, 1905, p. 1]
[538-4/18/21]
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