A murder case

I was looking through microfilm of the local newspaper. I read about a murder case which happened in 1952 or '53. A fifteen-year-old farm boy, then the youngest person ever to be charged with murder in Oregon, was convicted of killing his pregnant girlfriend.

I read the verdict first. I wondered if he was really guilty. With the primitive state of forensic science and the way they treated juvenile delinquents on those days, who could tell? So I went back and read reports on the trial.

The girl was shot in the back of the head as she was picking flowers. Footprints made by the boy's boots were found at the scene. The boots themselves were found stuffed into a hollow tree trunk. She was shot with a .22 caliber Colt Woodsman pistol which belonged to the boy's father.
 
The boy pleaded not guilty. He testified in his own defense and he was the only defense witness.

His lawyer got him started with a question and the boy told his story.

On the day of the murder, he was working on the tractor, trying to get the motor running. He was startled when a "mean-looking old man" walked up behind him. "He looked really mean!"

"You're father got any guns?" the old man said.

"Yes, sir. He does."

"Go get me one!"

"Oh, no, sir. I'm not allowed to touch any of the guns."

But the old man looked "really mean", so the kid went inside and came back with the pistol. He gave it to the old man.

"Now, gimme them boots!" the old man said.

He had a gun, so the boy had little choice. He gave the old man his boots.

The old man put them on, then walked off across a field toward his girlfriend's house. The boy heard a gunshot. Then the old man came walking back.

He gave the boy the gun and told him to put it back where he got it. "And you better get rid of them boots!"

Under cross examination, the boy explained that he never told police this because the old man had already killed his girlfriend---he didn't want to be killed, too! That's why he never told anyone this story even when he was arrested and charged with the crime.

And he said he recognized the old man----it was his girlfriend's grandfather. Who, the prosecutor pointed out, had an alibi.

The kid was convicted. They figured he would serve four or five years. Children get more than that today for nonviolent crimes.

The paper ran an editorial about the case. They wondered what would become of him in prison.

"He will probably become a homosexual," it said.

It's surprising how short the sentence was since, around the same time, a blind couple was sentenced to five years for writing a bad check and a young married woman with children was sentenced to sixty days in jail for drinking a beer. She was under 21. A homeless teenage boy, only 16, was sentenced to six months for vagrancy.