DAUGHTER OF LUCY SMALLWOOD

SKINNER, SMALLWOOD

Posted By: Nancee(McMurtrey)Seifert (email)
Date: 2/11/2002 at 23:00:29

Decatur County Journal
December 3l, l9l4

A murder mystery in Nebraska has been solved
through the efforts of
little MISS MILDRED SKINNER, the six-year-old
daughter of MR. and MRS.
W.A. SKINNER, of North Platte, MRS. SKINNER,
mother of the child, will
be remembered by Decatur County people as
MISS LUCY SMALLWOOD, sister of
CHARLES and GEORGE SMALLWOOD, of near Leon.
The mystery, now cleared up,
attracted wide attention. Last August VERNON
CONNETT disappeared from
his home and the authorities had made every
effort to unravel the
mystery. It was firmly believed that CONNETT
had been murdered and a
reward of $400 was offered in an effort to
solve the mystery and bring
the murderer to justice. The mystery has
cleared up through the clever
work of this six-year-old child and
confessions secured from parties
placed under arrest after the information
MISS MILDRED had secured had
been communicated to the authorities.

The following account of the matter and the
part taken by little MISS
SKINNER in the work of detecting the murderer
is taken from a North
Platte paper:

The brutal murder of VERNON CONNETT by ROY
ROBERTS at the CHRIS SUND
farm near here on August 2 is pictured in all
its gruesome details by
MR. and MRS. CHARLES CLAYTON in a signed
confession secured at 2 o'clock
this morning after a night of grilling
examination by the authorities.
The confession came about through the remarks
made by six-year-old
NELLIE ROBERTS, stepdaughter of CLAYTON, who
told of the murder to her
little school mate.

In his confession CLAYTON says that ROY
ROBERTS and CONNETT were
quarreling over the ownership of CONNETT's
team and wagon on the morning
of August 2. They began to fight and CLAYTON
rushed out from the house
to interfere. He was met by a blow from the
fist of ROBERTS which
felled him. As he fell he saw ROBERTS strike
CONNETT in the neck,
killing him.

ROBERTS then demanded that MR. and MRS.
CLAYTON assist him in disposing
of the body, threatening to blow their heads
off with his shot gun and
cut the throat of the little girl, NELLIE
ROBERTS, if they refused.

CLAYTON then assisted ROBERTS in loading the
limp body of CONNETT into
his wagon after which ROBERTS drove off,
stating that he would take the
body to the South Platte River to burn it.
At the South Platte River
was recently found the jaw bone of a man
which physicians, who have
examined it, say has been through fire.

The authorities were able to secure this
confession from the CLAYTONS
through the conversation little NELLIE
ROBERTS, daughter of MRS.
CLAYTON, had with her little schoolmate,
MILDRED SKINNER.

The child was examined by the authorities
last Saturday night. She told
the above story in almost the same way. She
stated that when she saw
CLAYTON and ROBERTS start to carry away the
limp body of CONNETT she ran
to the house to tell her mother, MRS.
CLAYTON. MRS. CLAYTON told her
never to speak of it again, she said, and
threatened to whip her if she
ever mentioned it to anyone.

The little SKINNER girl recently startled her
parents, MR. and MRS. W.A.
SKINNER, by talking about the murder in their
presence. MILDRED SKINNER
was then told to get more of the story from
the little ROBERTS girl if
she could. The ROBERTS child later told that
she had asked her mother
if she might tell, but MRS. CLAYTON had
warned her again never to speak
of the matter.

The child's story was not given much weight
until Friday when CLAYTON
showed signs of weakening. H.G. CONNETT,
brother of VERNON CONNETT,
with Sheriff Salisbury and CHARLES CLAYTON
went out to look for the body
of CONNETT near the Birdwood Bridge.

>From the remarks made by CLAYTON, CONNETT
became suspicious of him, and
told him of his dangerous position unless he
told all he knew of the
affair.

CLAYTON then appeared to be troubled. He was
heard to mumble brokenly
of the affair and pleaded that he be taken to
town immediately as he
feared H.G. CONNETT. On the way to town in
the Charles Hupfer
automobile, which happened to be near,
CLAYTON made confessions that
warranted his immediate arrest.

The authorities spent all of Friday night
with MR. and MRS. ROBERTS with
the result that at about 2 o'clock this
morning they both agreed to tell
all. They then made a complete confession of
which the above is a
summary. The confession in itself is long
and in detail, occupying ten
pages of legal stationery.

This latest development in the murder case is
taken to be conclusive
proof that ROY ROBERTS is the murderer of the
missing VERNON CONNETT
whose relatives have been searching for him
since last August when he
disappeared. A case charging ROBERTS with
first degree murder will
probably be filed here late today by County
Attorney G.N. Gibbs.
ROBERTS has as yet not been told of the long
confession of his mother
and stepfather, MR. and MRS. CHARLES CLAYTON.
He still maintains that
CONNETT is (can't read..)
The statement that CLAYTON murdered CONNETT
led to his arrest and
detention here. Since that time the
authorities have been working
constantly on the case with the result that
the signed confession has
been secured.

MR. and MRS. CLAYTON are being held at the
county jail lest they attempt
to get away before the case comes to trial.
The possibility that they
will be incriminated with ROBERTS is great,
their attempt to conceal the
crime being damaging evidence against them.

---------------------------------------------
Decatur County Journal
March l4, l9l5

Journal readers will remember that this paper
some weeks ago told of the
detection of a murderer near North Platte,
Nebraska, through the clever
work of MILDRED, the six-year-old daughter of
MRS. W.A. SKINNER,
formerly a resident of Decatur County. A few
days ago we received
newspaper clippings from C.A. SMALLWOOD, of
near Pleasanton, uncle of
little MILDRED SKINNER, telling of the trial
and the conviction of the
murderer and his sentence to be electrocuted
on June 4th. The murder
was that of a young man by the name of VERNON
CONNETT, who with his wife
and baby had driven up into Nebraska from
Kansas looking for work. At
North Platte, he met ROY ROBERTS, who took
him to a ranch to secure
work. MRS. CONNETT went to Mason City, Iowa,
to visit relatives.
CONNETT disappeared. Later the body of
CONNETT was found with the skull
crushed. The murder remained a mystery until
little MILDRED SKINNER
obtained information from another little
girl, NELLIE ROBERTS,
step-sister of ROY ROBERTS, which she
communicated to her parents. She
was instructed to find out more from the
other child and what she
learned led to the arrest of ROBERTS and his
final conviction.

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Copied February l0, 2002
A very interesting story!