"BLUEBEARD'S" CONFESSIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 July 1920, Page 10

"BLUEBEARD'S" CONFESSIONS.

NEVER KILLED RICH WIVES, THE CALLOUS CRIMES OP RICHARD HARVEY. The strange emotions, impulses, and the strange "code of honor" of Charles Newton Harvey, who has confessed to the murder of fivo of his xwenty odd wives, are disclosed in the modern Bluebeard's own story of his amazing case as told last month at Los Angeles, California. Harvey, in detailing the manner in which he slew the wives, presents not the slightest trace of regret. But this strange laboratory specimen of man becomes highly offended when mercenary motives for his crimes are imputed to him by the authorities. Money to him literally is "the root of all evil," and he repeatedly boasts he had never taken, nor accepted as a gift, a single dollar from any of his victims. PUBLIC MISUNDERSTANDS. To have "married" women simply to have obtained money from them, or to have murdered them merely to escape the penalty of his bigamous marriages, would have been a heinous crime in his estimation, but After smashing in Elizabeth Prior's head with a sledge hammer and murdering Nina Lee Deloney in a. similar fashion, Harvey declares ne felt so at case that "I just wanted to go out and sing and laugh!" Harvey does not expect the public to "understand" him, and says over and over: "I don't understand myself."

"Instead of feeling bad after I made away with them, l r felt as if a weight had been lifted; but it wa3 all over," he said. "It couldn't be that I am mercenary, because the amount I received in several cases was of no consequence, and I knew well beforehand it was of no consequence. Jnstead of taking their money, I usually gave money to the girls. "One of the peculiar things is that those who had a lot of money I made no effort to kill, and it seems that the parties I made away with were the very ones who had nothing to speak of. Yes, the wealthy ones are all still living.,

RETURNED WIFE'S MONEY. '•'l recall one occasion when I was sick; Mrs. Goldsmith, one of my wives, went away, and told me she had better leave some money for me, because my own money was. in Canada and the rate of exchange was rather heavy against me. I told her that I would not take the money at the time, but that if I were sick a little longer and really needed it, I would send for it. "Two or three days later I saw I was not getting any better, and I wrote to her for £lO. She sent me a draft at once, but I wasn't sick as long as I thought I would, be, so I returned the draft without cashing it. "Mrs. Goldsmith, (one of the wives) will tell you the same thing. I suppose she is worth £4OOO or £5000.!' Although Harvey looks unusually weak physically, due to his two attempts to end his life, he would not even normally be a powerful man. How he could kill two of his five wives with such a crude weapoh as a hammer was explained in his confession as follows: HAD EPILEPTIC FITS. "Under these killing spells I seem to have had the strength of two or three persons combined. After it was done I always became very weak. Just seemed I was given the strength. You see, I did have a few epileptic fits, and I know what strength the folks said I did have then. I had the strength" The original confession made by Harvey at the County Hospital paves. the way for his plea of insanity, and touches upon the great problem murderers all face —what to do with the body—how to dispose of it without leaving tell-tale clues.