INFANTICIDE: August 17, 1907 Tombstone Arizona Baby Doe

 On August 17, 1907, an infant was found dead in Tombstone, Arizona. He was a white newborn believed to be alive for hours and died just an hour before his body was found. He had been asphyxiated.  

SOURCES:

Find a Grave

Unidentified Wiki

Murder of Annette Fernande Bellot

 

On December 1, 1907, 6-year-old Annette Bellot and her older brother were playing in the street on Place de Brouckere or Dam St. in Anderlecht, Belgium. A man would approach the children and ask Annette's older brother to buy him some cigarettes and would give him candy as a reward for doing so. The man told the boy "Leave your little sister with me; you will go faster". Trusting that the man and Annette would be there when he returned. He would go and buy the cigarettes and returned with neither of them there.

The next day Annette's body would be found behind the Veterinary School near the Gare du Midi. The unknown man had raped and strangled the girl to death.  Her murder will never be solved.

SOURCES:

Find A Grave

End of Watch: Murder of Officer August Baker and the Lynching of William Burns

On October 3, 1907, 22-year-old William Burns and Gus Little who were both African Americans were drinking at a Hussey's Saloon near canal wharf in Cumberland, Maryland. They were making threats to other patrons and being disorderly. They were ordered to leave and the duo did not do so. Officer August Baker came to arrest the two for disorderly conduct.

William was not having any of it and was supposedly resisting arrest. Officer Baker tried to subdue him with pepper spray, but during the scuffle, William shot Officer Baker.  He was able to handcuff William, but Gus Little escaped during the fight. The shot was proven fatal and Officer August Baker died due to his injuries on October 6.

 William had admitted he was drunk but did not remember that night. He sat in jail for several days and was fearful that the townspeople were going to go after him.

Which when the townspeople heard that an officer had died anger consumed the town. Sheriff H.R. Hamilton did not place extra guards on duty at the jailhouse because he didn't believe that people would harm his prisoner. Deputy Sheriff Noah Hendley was on guard at midnight on October 6.

Several small groups of men were in the streets making their way to the jailhouse. Many of them wore their jackets inside out and handkerchiefs over their faces. By 1 a.m. a group of around 50 men approached the jail and 100 were gathered by the time they reached the jail.

There were conflicting stories of how many were there. Deputy Hendley reported over 2,000 while others said no more than 25. Spectators claimed that Deputy Hendley did, in fact, give over the keys easily even though he claimed that they tore at his clothes for them.

The men stormed the jail doors and demanded the keys from Deputy Hendley. Hendly refused which enraged the group. They tore down a telegraph pole and forced the doors open. They dragged William out of his cell with a smashed nose, a torn ear, and numerous cuts and bruises.

There were two motives of the people who attended the mob. One was that they wanted William to confess to the murder. The other was to lynch William because they were convinced he was already guilty. It was said that several prominent men in the city were a part of the mob.

A rope could not be found, so the men decided to shoot William. After he was shot and his body fell to the ground they checked to see if he was still alive and when confirmed he was, in fact, dead the mod dispersed quickly.

On October 12, 1907, Allegany County was able to raise $500 for the conviction of those who were a part of the mob. Judge Boyd directed a grand jury to investigate the lynching. No one could be identified for the prosecution of the crime. The Afro-Ledger protested the lynching in an article that summed up the situation well.

"The men who lynched Burns are greater murderers than he was, for while he shot his man while under the influence of liquor, and without premeditation, these men deliberately planned and carried their plans in execution. Without a doubt, every one of them is guilty of murder in the first degree and justice will not be done until everyone implicated in it is brought before the bar and receives the penalty of his crime."

No one was arrested or caught for the lynching though. 

SOURCES:

Maryland 

Wikipedia

Serial Killers: Ida Schnell the 13-year-old Serial Killer

13-year-old Ida Schnell worked as a nursemaid in Munich, Germany. She was under the service of several families. She was described as being big for her age, dull and sulky. She didn't stay very long at each home. No one suspected the young teen of the deaths of their children until after the funeral of the 6th infant that died in her care. Each one had died sudden and mysterious deaths within six months and all under her care.

It was decided that they would exhume the body of the last victim, a 14-day-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Bichler of Ampermoching. The investigation revealed that the baby had been killed. The death was caused by a perforation of the child's soft skull with a sharp instrument. This was when it was confirmed that Ida had killed infants in her care. They tried exhuming two other victim's but they were too decomposed to tell the cause of death.

She was quickly questioned about Bichler's sons death. At first, she denied and said that his wound was from a fall. She would soon confess though. She stated that she hated hearing the baby cry and that she stuck her hairpin into his head until he stopped crying.

She would then go on and confess to doing it to the other babies that died under her care. She said that she had gotten into the habit of stabbing them in the back of the head with her hairpin until they stopped crying. She hated hearing them cry and wanted it to stop.

I could not find what had happened to the case and if Ida had served anytime in jail or an asylum.

SOURCES:
The Bundaberg Mail and Burnett Advertiser  (19 Oct. 1907)
The Baltimore Sun (03 Nov. 1907)
Buffalo Evening News (04 Nov. 1907)
Buffalo Evening News (18 Nov. 1907)