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St. Louis, ---(AP)--- After hours of questioning, Robert Nash, 27-year-old St. Louis electrician, today confessed, said police Capt. Leonard Murphy, to the ax slaying of his father and mother during a quarrel over his financial difficulties.
Murphy, of the St. Louis police detective division, said the husky blonde-haired youth related details of the brutal crime to the police, federal bureau of investigation agents and Illinois authorities.
Found on the Road
Charles A. Nash, 61-year-old internal revenue agent, and his 49-year-old wife, Eleanor, were found, hacked and mutilated, Tuesday night in the family automobile on a highway eight miles north of Springfield, Ill.
His composure unruffled by a constant barrage of questions, the younger Nash finally revealed he slew his father, then his mother, during a violent argument over $640 in personal debts and his habit of continued late hours, Murphy related.
"I know the penalty for my crime and I'm willing to pay it." Nash told reporters.
Nash's version of the murder, as told by the authorities, related how, after he had grabbed a hand ax and killed his father, his mother, frantic with fear and grief cried:
"Now look what you've done."
Clutched at Son
Her hands wildly clutched at her son as he turned in anger, struck her with his fist, then again took up the bloody weapon and slashed her repeatedly.
"I hit her on the head, shoulders and back," Nash said. "I placed his body in the trunk and then I threw her body on the floor."
He hitch-hiked a ride with James McCue, a coal hauler, who officers said, identified Nash last night in a police showup and provided authorities with what they said was the first real break in the case.
Before announcing Nash's confession, acting chief of police Andrew Aylward, had said that young Nash a few days ago had admitted mailing a premium on a $2,000 insurance policy on the life of his father.
(Burlington Hawk-Eye Gazette, Burlington, Iowa, Thursday, S24 Sept. 1942, Page 1)