This Day in History: 1912-01-21

Ezra Conklin struck his common law wife Josephine DeGroat on the head with an axe and ended up in the County Jail in Hackensack.  He lives on the mountain just back of Mahwah.  He hit her a terrible blow and immediately crossed over the State Line into New York.  The children finally got some help on the morning of the 22nd when a Suffern doctor found her in bed in a pool of blood, the axe nearby.  Conklin was arrested at the home of his brother in Sloastberg by New York State authorities.  He was turned over to Bergen County Police by the Justice of the Peace in Suffern.  Conklin claimed that a singing in his head during certain phases of the moon caused him to do it.  His wife is not expected to live.  Conklin has not been in trouble with the law before.  He is about 35 years old.

(Mrs. DeGroat was taken to the Hackensack Hospital by County Detective William V. A. Blauvelt.  The two small children who witnessed the assault were placed in the County Home.  Conklin is still in jail.)