Friday, September 13, 2024

School Teacher in Jail for Strangling Her Baby at Birth, Sept. 14, 1924

School Teacher Is Charged with Death of an Infant Child. . . Baby Strangled at Birth with a Piece of Cord—Mother Alleged to Have Taught School Same Day

Waynesville, Sept. 13 (AP)—Mollie Teague, young school teacher at Little Cattaloochee, 35 miles from this place, is held in custody on the charge of having strangled to death an infant child at birth. She is alleged by the Sheriff’s officers to be the mother.

She has confessed to the crime, which occurred last Tuesday, according to Haywood county officers.

The tiny baby was found Tuesday in a cornfield near the home of W.G.V. Messer, in Little Cattaloochee township. It had been strangled to death, a cord being tightly drawn about the neck when found.

At the Coroner’s hearing, Messer testified that on Tuesday morning he had seen the school teacher in the cornfield. She had been staying at his house while teaching the school, a short distance away. She taught school that day, Messer finding the body of the baby shortly after noon of the same day.

When questioned by officers, she admitted, they say, that she gave birth to the child in the cornfield Tuesday morning, strangled it with the cord, and then taught school the same day.

She is held under guard, seriously ill, at the Messer home.

From page 5 of the Goldsboro News, Sunday morning, September 14, 1924.

newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn93064755/1924-09-14/ed-1/seq-5/

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