Salt Lake Tribune | 1916-03-05 | Page 28 | Fugitive Woman is Captured in Hotel

' FUGITIVE WOIi IS , GAPTUREDJW HOTEL Mrs Minnie Ekman Says She Was Going to See Her Baby's Grave INSISTS SHE IS SANE Wants to Go Home to Her Mother in Michigan, Describes De-scribes Her Escape Mm Minnie Ekman who in Jun,e j 1918 murdered her little daughter and j wag arrested shortly after she had t shipped the body to Ogden in a trunk was rearrested here last Bight after having been at liberty 1 from the state mental hosp tal at Provo t elnee early Trilay morning She was arrested at the Manx hotel 151 Went Third South street by Cap-ta Cap-ta n J J Boberts and Detect ve John Kelly when the hotel people telephoned the police saying that a woman there appeared to be demented Mrs Ekman appeared to be rat onal when interviewed in the. woman s ward at the city ia 1 last n ght She sa d It was my own fault that I waB caught I stayed here too long I was going to the ce netery to Bee my 1 ttle I ranees s grave but my feet hurt so that I thought I d wa t until tomor row Mother Sends Money Asked how she evaded the guards and made her escape from the mental hospital she said For a year I have been perfectly rational I asked Dr D H Calder many t mes why I couldn t go to my mother in M eh gan and he would prom se me that I could go very soon I asl ed h m last week and he said Don t get over anxious or you 11 ne er get oat( That hurt me so much that I cr ed When my fr ends wrote to me I never got the letters and the only mail that ever came to me was from my mother Last Thursday I received a letter fron mother It had some money n it I won t say how m ch By some chance the doctors d dn t get it I n screwed the cleats that held the bars across my w ndow in ward D on the second floor At 2 o clock Friday morn ng I tore the bars off and slid to the ground. I used a rope made out of my bedd ng I reached the ground and walked slowly toward the road. I kept walk ng till I got to Pleasant Grove then I took an Orem car and came here It was very easy I d be on my way to M ch gsn now if I hadn t tr ed to see little Frances s grave Is Neatly Dressed Mrs Ekn an wore a neat black dres with a touch of scarlet at the throat Her heavy black ha r vas brushed closely about her head She seemed in perfect health except for a pecul ar gl nt that can e into her blue eyes when she talked of her crime At the hotel she reg stered as Mrs Anderson tak ng the name of her first husband whom she marr ed fifteen ears ago in M ch gan and w th vhom she waS arrested n Ogden vhen sta t on men becan e susp c ous of the tn nk contain ng the body of her baby-As baby-As she told of her life in the state mental hosp tal she became exc ted and la nched into a b tter t rade aga nst the men vho control the msti tut on Now Knows Politics. She ea d Governor Spry prom sel me that I could go home to my mother Dr Calder prom sed the same th ng Instead I vas kept n the nen room at work I know many things abo t pol t cs that I d dn't know when I was coram tted to the asvl m one of these th ngs s th s All. great men are great 1 ars I have been veil no v for a year I have an old mother in Ironwood M ch My h sband, Anderson s there too There was where I in tended to go Oh It s my fault that I am here now I Btayed here too long I anted so much to see my baby 8 grave. The unfortunate woman showed no hesitancy in d scussing her crime Asked point blank why she murdered her baby she said I was just as crazy as a loon I ha e been that way off and on until o er a year ago I w sh that I had been tr ed for the cr me in stead of sentenced to the mental hospital There are many women there who are as rational as I an When a relative wants them to be put o t of the way they are oon mitted to the state mental hospital An officer from Provo will probably arrive early today