MURDER FOR A THRILL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21529, 29 December 1931, Page 10

MURDER FOR A THRILL

YOUNG STUDENT’S CRIME SEEKING TO RELIEVE BOREDOM. Sitting in a crowded courtroom at Mineola, Long Island, a tearful took a 1 silent farewell of her debonair young Husband as he turned from the dock condemned to a 20-year sentence m S The" unhappy girl was the wife of Philip Knox Knapp, and ghe had had the terrible experience of learning that the man whose life she has shared past six years was the author of a mur der with which the whole country was ringing at the time they were made man 11 The was known as “the murder for a thrill,” because Knapp took a human life with the extraordinary aim of getting an aditional “kick” out of his already hectic existence, . - Knapp was the sou of a wealthy retired manufacturer, and had a brilliant career at Cornell University. Apart from his scholastic achievements, he became notorious for many madcap escapades. Re became known as “the man who is always looking for a thrill, but, despite thwide range of daredevil activities m which he engaged, he never seemed to find it. He tried the usual illicit drinking parties. They simply bored him. As a motoring “ speed-hog he soon grew blase. A dozen other activities similarly failed to interest him. , Then Knapp left the university and joined the United State Air Service as a private, hoping to satisfy his insatiab.e craving for excitement. He soon became known as a pilot with nb nerves, but some of his air stunts were fraught with so much danger to others that it was not long before he was barred from flying. Shortly after this he deserted and vanished. MURDER OF THE TAXI DRIVER. About this time the public learned of the sensational murder of a taxi driver named Panella. His body was found under the floorboards of a hut in a disused army hospital at Long Island. Knapp, the sensation-seeking airman who had deserted, was not suspected for a moment. But it was not long before his name was definitely linked with the crime. One day there came to ms father a

letter in which Knapp virtually made a confession. In this extraordinary docu-, raent he wrote: —" For many months now I have been daily haunted by one thought —that I shall only find the supreme thrill which I am ever seeking, and which is ever eluding me, by the taking of a human life. You will not* I suppose, understand this constant urge in the very least. But I have spent some time examining the thing with an unbiassed and analytical mind, and_ am now convinced That only in the taking of a human life does one experience the greatest thrill life has to offer. _ “ By the time you get this letter I shall have made that experiment and doubtless the papers will be filled with the story of one more murder mystery. I have i carefully selected my victim, and when I am ready- shall engage him to drive himself to his death.” There was an instant hue and cry for Knapp, but the “thrill murderer,” as he , had become known, had vanished. What Knapp actually did was to change his name to Allen Phillips and join the coastguard service at Staten Island. A WHIRLWIND COURTSHIP. Within a day or two of committing the crime, Knapp met a pretty Boston girl, named' Eleanor Hill. After a week’s whirlwind wooing they married. He •pToved a devoted husband, and not for a moment did his 1 girl-wife dream that the handsome young fellow to whom she had linked her life was the “monster” for whom so keen a search was being made. One queer thing the young bride noticed > was that her husband could' never he *'• prevailed upon to talk of his parents, or • relatives. He was as secretive about this as about the contents of a little book in which, it has since been discovered, he recorded his impressions of the slaying of Panella. It was in consequence of her reiterated promptings that he finally decided, ( a£ter six years’ silence, to write to his father. Detectives, who had never ceased their vigilance on the off chance of some such move as this, discovered, the fact, and arrested Knapp. On the advice of eminent lawyers briefed by his wealthy father, Knapp pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, thus ensuring the sentence of many year* in Sing Sing, but making equally certain the avoidance of a death sentence. The young wife has announced her intention of waiting steadfastly for the moment of her husband’s release. “He was a good husband,” she declared, “ and I will stick to him to the end.”