Accused of Killing Child
Five-Year-old Stepdaughter's Body Buried in Yard
Philadelphia, June 21. The body of five-year-old Mary Newlin was found today buried in the yard of the home of her stepfather, Irwin A. Lewis, near Avondale, thirty-five miles from this city. Lewis under arrest. John Newlin, her grandfather, is a nephew of William L. Elkins, the millionaire.
The child had been strangled with a piece of tarred ope and over her head a burlap bag had been drawn. Near one of the little girl's hands was her mouth organ. This she had apparently clutched tightly up to the last, and the fact that it lay in the grave beside her is taken as proof that the child was murdered beside the hole.
In suspecting Lewis of the murder of the child, the District Attorney's most important clue had lain in the facts of Mrs. Lewis's past. More than five years ago she was employed as a nurse in the Chester County Asylum for the Insane. There she had met Lawrence Butler, who was an attendant there. They were to have been married, but Butler unexpectedly departed for the South soon after both he and Edna Newlin, as she was known before her marriage, were compelled to leave the employ of the hospital. She returned to her father's home, where her child was born.
Lewis and Edna Newlin had been childhood sweethearts and he knew all the facts of her life. Five months ago he married her. That the presence of the little girl was a cause of irritation to the stepfather was the motive for murder upon which the District Attorney worked.
Little Mary disappeared last Sunday and her stepfather insisted she had been kidnapped.
As you can see, we have lots of newsworthy bits in this story - insane asylum workers, rich relatives, an illegitimate child, a jealous stepfather, and ultimately, a horrible murder of an innocent child. It's really no wonder then, that the story was covered extensively in the press at the time, and perhaps even less surprising that Mr. Irwin Lewis was eventually executed by the State of Pennsylvania on February 25, 1909 for the murder of little Mary Newlin.
