On July 7, 1914, a salesman named 27-year-old Roswell Smith would lure 4-year-old Hazel Weinstein into an alley near her home in Chicago, Illinois. Roswell would then sexually assault the young girl. During the assault, he either strangled or suffocated the girl. Panicked he went to a nearby house and knocked on the door holding the girl who was faintly breathing. He would tell them that he found the girl in the alley this way. She would die a short time later.
A witness would come forward stating that a man that looked like Roswell was with the girl a short time before her death. Roswell would confess that he had a flash the Tuesday night before the attack and he became obsessed with the idea. They would then try to claim that his seizures caused him to attack and kill the girl. He was also considered mentally "defective" and eccentric, but harmless. He would still be found guilty and sentenced to hang.
On Feb. 13, 1915, Roswell would be executed. His last words before executions were; "I will raise my eyes unto the hills, whence cometh my help."
SOURCES:
Homicide in Chicago
Last Words of Executed
Horror History
The Rock Island Argus July 8, 1914
The Day Book July 8, 1914
Chicago Tribune July 9, 1914
The Daily Chronicle July 29, 1914
Chicago Tribune November 13, 1914
Carbondale Free Press November 16, 1914
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