Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 231, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 September 1919 — QUICK JUSTICE METED OUT TO CHILD SLAYER. [ARTICLE]

QUICK JUSTICE METED OUT TO CHILD SLAYER.

Thomas R. Fitzgerald must pay the pentlay on the gallows for the murder of little Janet Wilkinson. ■Chief Justice Robert E. Crowe, of the criminal court, so decreed yesterday when he sentenced him-to hang in the county jail October 17. Fitzgerald pleaded “guilty” when arraigned. Attorney John E. Northrup, appointed by the court to defend the confessed slayer, made a valiant fight for life .imprisonment, but his appeal fell on deaf ears. Assistant State’s Attorney James C. O’Brien both in his opening and closing address after dence insisted there was but one punishment that fitted the revolting crime, and that was death. A deep hush fell over the court room as be concluded. Judge Crowe instructed the bailiffs to take into custody any person making a demonstration when he prepared to pass sentence. The judge’s face was grimly set. “Thomas R, Fitzgerald, have you anything to say before sentence is pronounced?” he asked, looking keenly at the huddled form in the defendant’s chair. Fitzgerald faltered as he rose and walked toward the bench. He regained his stoicism, but his head hung on his chest. Finally he found words. -. r '7§;- v ■■■_ = 1 “I’m sorry,” he said in a voice scarcely above a whisper. “I ask forgiveness of the parents and throw myself upon the mercy of the court.” ... • . ' —r— —-

“Is there anything further you desire to say?” the court continued. Fitzgerald didn’t speak for fully a minute. The crowd of spectators craned their necks to take in every bit of the proceedings. Slowly, almost a drawl, he spoke falteringly: “I-I-J ask God to forgive me. I ask forgiveness of all those that have injured me and to forgive me for all I have injured. That’s all.” “It is the judgment of this court,” Judge Crowe then went on, “that you are guilty of murder as charged in the indictment on- your plea of guilty. “It is further the 1 judgment of the court that you shall he taken to the building commonly known as the county jail and there safely kept by the sheriff of Cook county until October 27, when you shall be taken therefrom and between the hoin-3 of sunrise and sunsit hanged by thp neck untQ dead. May the Lori have mercy on your soul.” Two faint sobs from opposite sides of the court room broke the silence that had been mtalntained by the spectators. One was from Mrs. Catherine Wilkinson, the distracted mother of the: slain child. Tlie other from Mts. Martha Fitzgerald, j wife in name only of the condemned man. I . • •- v ~. ' ' . I *’ H V4*|