“I came home Saturday night about twenty minutes after 7 o’clock and stayed around the house all evening. About 8 o’clock I had a dispute with my mother. She was always nagging at me for more money, and told me that I did not give her enough. I called her names and we had a terrible quarrel. I became so angry that I did not know what I was doing. I grabbed her bu the shoulder, shook her and threw her to the kitchen floor. She screamed for help. I choked her. Then I grabbed a small kitchen knife that was lying on the table. I hacked at her throat, then slashed it and the blood spurted out on me. She struggled frantically and I cut her several more times in the abdomen and on the leg. Then I fainted away. When I came to I was lying in a pool of blood, and her dead body was lying beside me. I picked the body up, got some towels, washed the blood off as much as I could, wrapped it in blankets and stood it up in the closet. Then I cleaned the blood from my own clothes, mopped the floor, lit a fire in thee stove, burned up the towels and went to bed. I slept soundly all night long and, in fact, overslept an hout Sunday morning. I was supposed to be up at half past five, but I did not wake up till half past six when I got my breakfast and went over to the city to my work as usual.”

Erland Soderburg confession to police March 1907.

 

November 2018.